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A New Masculine Birthday Card

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We’re in Wisconsin for a few days. It’s always good to be visiting family, but Sunday was a rude awakening–snow, ending up with nearly 2″ of the white stuff. Meanwhile, back in Rochester it was 60°+.

The day before we left, I squeezed in a little time to make a birthday card for my brother-in-law. The main foiled pattern, Pinkfresh Studio’s Abstract Triangles, had already been foiled, so it was pretty quick and easy once I settled on the design. 

HBTom

I did manage to put another NBUS die to use: My Favorite Things: Stitched Diamond STAX. Recently, I spent some time hot foiling lots of sentiments, so the Happy Birthday from Spellbinders, You Are Everything, was also ready to add to the diamond die cut. 

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I love this design–elegant, but simple, and another great card for a guy. I’m quite sure I’ll use the design again. No additional embellishment was needed. 

The card is off to three challenges and Darnell’s NBUS site. AAA Birthday Challenge is looking for Masculine Cards, Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthday Cards, and I’ll add it to Seize the Birthday’s Anything Goes category. 

AAA#71  Addicted  STB-AnythingGoesNBUS


 

 

 

 

 

Lemons and Limes for CH #106

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As soon as I saw Julie’s pick for the current Color Hues Challenge,

CH # 106-Lemon and Lime.001

I knew I had exactly the right stamp, stencil and die set. A year ago February, I participated in Pinkfresh Studio’s Create & Connect event. As usual, I never finished all the cards but I hadn’t forgotten the Citrus Twist set which I never used during the course. This card is a CASE of Anett Gelencsér’s Make and Take for that class. 

CH106

Her card used a partial die cut technique, but I opted to just cut a diagonal slice from the card front which I was able to use on the inside for the sentiment. I then attached the die cut slices to the front of the card.  Anett used the same coverplate, Stitched Octagons, but she used it on the front of the card, and I opted for the inside.

H106Flat

The stamp was embossed in gold as is the sentiment from Honey Bee’s Be Still stamps. I added some of the additional flowers and leaves included in the set that are die cut separately with the same die for the citrus slices. This card turned out to be difficult to photograph and the gold embossing will have to be imagined by the viewer (probably due primarily to the gray days that extend in western New York through March–and sometimes into April.)

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I attached the diagonal piece from the card front to the inside of the card so I’d have a good place for the sentiment.

CH106Inside

This sentiment and die are also from Be Still by Honey Bee.

This color combo is a great antidote to gloomy days. Regardless of where you live, I hope you’ll find yellow and green to be inspirational colors and join us in the gallery at Color Hues! You’ll find lots of inspiration from the Design Team and our very special Guest Designer, Michele! 

I’m sending this card to the AAA Colorful Challenge, where the colorboard is yellows and green. Once again, this card is off to NBUS as well as a relatively new challenge Neglected Stuff since I’ve had the stamps and dies for over a year, and have finally found the perfect use for them!

#14   NBUS  NeglectedStuff 

Exotic Blooms

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I have two cards to share, both inspired by current challenges which also gave me an opportunity to move one more item out of my NBUS box. The pretty little blooms were perfect for these challenges, all of which are among my favorite challenges. First off was Just Us Girls where it’s Die Week and they want a birthday card. Seize the Birthday wants “no stamping,” and The Flower Challenge (they’re celebrating their 100th challenge!!) wants a circle in the design. Here’s my answer to these three challenges. 

BrightExoticBlooms

I started by die cutting Simon Says Exotic Blooms from watercolor paper as well as a Simon Says Stitched Circles die. I used finger daubers to color the florals, picking bright and happy hues to celebrate some of the first warm days we’ve had recently. They just make me happy. It’s hard to tell but I very lightly ink blended a pale blue onto the circle before adding the flowers. Since no stamping is allowed, I pulled out my fave Memory Box Black Tab Sentiments. 

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I had another set of die cut florals, and remembered that The Paper Players are looking for pastel colors. The flowers are the same, but the design is different.

PastelExoticBlooms

Once again I used the watercolor paper. I love the texture it gives to CAS cards. This time I die cut two of Pinkfresh Studio’s Nested Hexagon Blanket Stitched dies and layered them before adding the florals which I again colored with finger daubers. I thought this card needed a little something so I added three small gold pearls, and another Black Tab birthday greeting in a different font.

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This card is also off to Seize the Birthday  and Just Us Girls as well as The Paper Players.

765 JUGS Die02-27-NoStamping2025 - 100 March-001PP728 




 

 

Songbirds

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It’s unusual for me to post twice in a day, but here is a set of three cards that, once again, came out of my “Work on This” box. This particular set of products have been sitting around for quite some time, but when I saw the As You See It Challenge for Birds, I knew it was time to get a move on. Having been away, I’m just posting these under the wire since the challenge closes in just a few hours.

The project idea began months ago when a friend gifted me with three charming die cut birds all assembled. I put them in a wooden bowl and pulled out Paper Trey Ink’s Songbirds stamp and die set, a long-time favorite. The three birds were created with a gradient of blues, so I chose a different card base for each of them.

Songbird1

This was the lightest of the three birds, so I chose Papertrey Ink’s Rustic White cardstock for the base. This card has a slightly different design than the other two. When I initially added the die cut branch, I glued it in the wrong place, so had to start all over. I had already put the MISTI away, so had to reposition the stamps. The musical stamp ended up being higher than the others, so I added a second branch to the bottom. I might like this design a bit better, but it was the last one I put together.

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For the second card, I chose Papertrey Ink’s Soft Stone, another favorite of mine. I added a few musical notes at the top of the card from My Favorite Things, Strike Up the Band.

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 This combination of the darkest bird on the kraft cardbase ended up being my favorite. One of the things I like about these cards is that they are pretty generic birthday card. I’d feel comfortable ending them to guys or girls. One close up so you can see how darling these birds are. 

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In addition to As You See It, I’m sending this off to A Cut Above challenge as well.

Challenge #342 CutAbove300

 

 

 

Spring Blossoms

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A couple of challenges motivated me to move another project out of my “Work on This” box which utilizes a NBUS product, the Hill Blossoms stencils and dies by Altenew. I don’t find using Altenew stencils to be as intuitive as those by Pinkfresh Studio, but once I got them placed correctly, they were very easy to color. I used my new one inch blending brushes from Pinkfresh, and they are truly a game changer. 

Blossoms

I ended up making a mini-slimline card when I found the stitched and scalloped die cut in my box of premade treasures. I must have die cut them at a friend’s house, since I don’t own any dies quite like this one. 

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The sentiment is, once again, a Memory Box black tab. They work well on so many cards! I added some very tiny black pearls to the centers of the flowers, and then some clear drops as a final accent. 

The challenges that inspired me were The Paper Players looking for Spring Flowers, Just Us Girls: Anything Goes: Stencils, and Neglected Stuff (this stencil has been in my box for months!). It’s also off to Darnell’s NBUS, and will link it up to her I.D.E.A.S. since this is the week for Ink (not a challenge per se.)

PP727 764 JUGS StencilNeglectedStuffNBUS



Color Hues #105

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The new Color Hues Challenge is live, and Carol has chosen another good one:White and Green.

CH #105-White and Green.001

They are perfect colors for St. Patrick’s Day, and since it’s also my husband’s birthday, I wanted to find a design would work for both. I ended up with a two-fer which is always a good thing.

CH105Both

The first card I created is the one on the right. I started with the white die cut from Papertrey Ink, Decorative Circles Coverplate, which has always been a favorite. I layered it on a card base of New Leaf (a very shamrock-like color) and inlayed the black diamonds. 

CH105White

I also added some black gems to the center of each diamond, but they’re almost impossible to see in the photo. The sentiment is from Altenew’s One-Go Birthday Greetings embossed in white on black cardstock. 

Having die cut a second panel of the coverplate in black for the diamonds above, I realized I could reverse the colors and ended up with this card:

CH105Green

For the sentiment here, I used a new stamp and die set from Spellbinders (their February Stamp & Die Club pick). After stamping and die cutting the sentiment, I die cut three more to stack for some dimension. This card will go to my husband. The inside birthday sentiment also comes from this set.

The white version is already in an envelope to go to a good friend who’s birthday is next week.

Be sure to check out all the inspiration on the Color Hues Blog from the Design Team and our very talented Guest Designer, Nance.

I’m sending this off to Darnell’s NBUS March gallery. This is the second time recently when I’ve used a new stamp and die in a timely manner! 

NBUS