There were two anniversaries in May to celebrate: my brother-in-law and sister-in-law celebrated their 40th anniversary and Sarah and Adam celebrated their 13th anniversary. I made both couples the same card–a near total CASE of this card. 

As soon as I saw the Simon Says “Deco Heart” die, I knew I’d want to own it. I already had the very similar stamp set which has been a favorite all along–see here and here. The patterned paper is from MFT “Black and White Stripes,” and the sentiment from Hero Arts “Everyday Sayings.” I typically wouldn’t post such a close CASE but my real reason for the post today are two anniversary cards that were created from the scraps and left-overs on my desk when I finished the one above.

I had one black die cut left, and cut a white heart as a frame for it, layered on a Pure Poppy card base. Same sentiment as above. 

I also had a white die cut heart and mounted it on a red heart. This time I used a premade card that came with a Simon Says kit some time ago.

I added a thin border of red cardstock on the inside of the card to accentuate the scallop on the bottom of the card. It’s not often I get two more cards from the left-overs on the desk, but it worked out well this time.

I’m linking this up to the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge: Wedding/Anniversary.

Father’s Day was celebrated here yesterday. This post was ready to go, but after celebrating with Matt and Betsy at her dad’s and a long Face Time call with Sarah and her family, we got busy and it just didn’t happen.

I’m always happy to make cards for three of the best dads I know–Tracy, Matt, and Adam. All three are hard-working, affectionate, loving, and kind. They’ve all been totally involved with raising their kids, and put in lots of quality time with them. I made three of the same card this year using Pink Fresh Studio’s “Adore” alphabet die. The die cuts two images-a very thin outline and a chunky inner letter. 

I layered three of each letter and outline to provide some texture–once with Simon Say’s “Smoke” and once with “Slate.” To get enough of them for three cards, meant die cutting 54 letters, but I love the contrast so it was well worth it. After assembling the letters I arranged them on a piece of Simon Says “Fog” cardstock die cut with Simon Says “Stitched Rectangles.” The sentiment was white embossed on black cardstock with a sentiment from W+9’s “Super Star” set which has been a go-to for masculine cards for many years.

I attached the sentiment with dimensional tape, and then adhered the cardfront to a card base made of Simon Says “Slate” cardstock. Another CAS design that I hope all three will like.

I’m linking this up to the “Father” challenge at Addicted to CAS. It’s been awhile since I played along with this challenge, and this is clearly CAS!

I have a birthday card to link up with two challenges. The first is a new challenge to me called The Library Challenge. Being an avid reader, I’m intrigued by this challenge which uses books as the inspiration. There are two current challenges open, and I’m joining in with “The Art of Stripes.”

I’m also entering it in the Seize the Birthday Challeng: Anything Goes.

The Simon Says June Card Kit is wonderful—filled with leafy frames, flowers, and branches just calling out to be colored. I pulled out my Copic markers for this card.

After coloring the circular wreath, I fussy cut it out, and die cut a “Stitched Circle” from Simon Says for the sentiment from Papertrey Ink’s “Day Dreamers.”  I also die cut a piece of Carta Bella ‘Botanical Gardens” patterned paper which also came with the June kit. After layering it on a white card base, I added the wreath, with dimensional tape.

The only embellishment was a few drops of Nuvo Crystal Drops that came with a previous kit.

Although I have a ways to go to perfect this technique, I finally gave no-line watercoloring a try. I used Ink on 3 for the stamping, and I was pleased with the way it worked. I used my MISTI to stamp the images, and that was a good decision as both needed a double stamping in order to be seen well enough. The lines remained clear until I touched them with the watercolor brush. Several days transpired between stamping and watercoloring the leaves.

Once again I used the Altenew 36 pan watercolor set which has wonderful colors for flowers, mixing together a couple of pinks, and using two different greens for the leaves. The stamped images are from my recent favorite set, Simon Says “Delicate Flowers.” I fussy cut the flowers after watercoloring, but ended up ordering the dies when I got a coupon code for Simon Says, and waited for them to arrive before die cutting the leaves. The circular mat was die cut with Papertrey Ink’s “Shape Shifter Circle #1,” using just the two outer dies.

The sentiment is from a new set from Waffle Flower, “Label Greetings.” I couldn’t resist the font or the narrow border around the sentiment. I embossed it in white on the same Raspberry Fizz cardstock as the card front.

The final embellishment were three small white pearls.

Entering this at AAA Birthday Challenge: Use Watercolors.

I’m also linking this up to the sister challenge AAA Cards for their 5th birthday celebration. This gets in just under the wire!

The new challenge at AAA Birthday is up: Use Watercolors.

I still had an image from Simon Says “Mandy’s Flowers” lying on my desk that I watercolored with Altenew’s 36 pan watercolors when we were visiting Sarah. I used Reverse Confetti’s “Pierced Round Top” dies to create a focal point for the image which is smaller than some.

I die cut two different sizes, first with Papertrey’s Green Parakeet cardstock, and then a pretty patterned paper from Reverse Confetti’s “Fun Times” paper pad. I used dimensional tape to add the flower pot, and then added it all to a white card base.

The sentiment from Simon Says “Best Ever’ set was embossed in white on black cardstock and trimmed out. Another pretty CAS design, although a bit more colorful than many.