The Seize the Birthday Challenge is one after my own heart: Die Cuts. There’s an option for a stamped sentiment if you want, and I’ll be back tomorrow with a last-minute entry in that category as well. 

But for today, I have a birthday card that uses ONLY die cuts. 

This Stamp Market die came as a freebie several releases ago. I wasn’t quite sure how to use it. The Happy is actually one die and I knew I wanted each letter to be a different color so I lined us narrow pieces of cardstock and managed to die cut them separately in a couple of runs through the die cutting machine. I loved the bright colors against the black card, and once that was done, once again I was puzzled about what to do next.

I finally settled on Gold Mirror cardstock, and I’m happy with the way it stands out layered on top of the HAPPY! I don’t know if this would qualify as CAS–but it makes for a relatively quick and easy card to reproduce. The only time consuming part of it was the decision making!

This card has already gone in then mail, but I decided it was time to get it on the blog as well. 

I have cards for two challenges to share today. Both were created before we left for vacation, and both have already gone in the mail. The first card is for The Paper Players Challenge—a new challenge for me. The current challenge is for masculine cards.

Masculine cards can be a challenge, but I thought these colorful feathers worked for one of our longtime friends who just celebrated his birthday. I first colored this image for the #100DayChallenge. The image itself is a coloring page made for cards by Papertrey Ink, “What the Doodle: Feather,” and has been in my stash for years. I first tried one of these with Copic markers but that hit the circular file. Using my Polychromos pencils made for much cleaner coloring.

I tried a new design technique that I’ve seen elsewhere, slicing a narrow strip from the black panel and backing it with a piece of red cardstock. I love the way it came out. 

The sentiment strip from Althenew’s “Sentiment Strips 2” was embossed in white on black cardstock.

The second card is my second entry to the Just Us Girls: Leaves challenge. This card was sent to a long time friend thanking her for lunch on her porch a few weeks ago. 

What I like about Altenew’s “Leaf Canopy” stamp set is there are both open and solid leaves.

I applied several colors of Wendy Vecchi’s ink pads to the solid leaves and spritzed them with a tiny bit of water before stamping them. Then I overstamped with the open leaves in black waterproof ink and used the same inks to add water color to those leaves.

The sentiment (just perfect for this thank you note) is also from the “Leaf Canopy” set. I trimmed the panel down just enough to have a thin black border on the Memory Box Licorice card. I love these cards because they have a white interior perfect for writing a note.

We’re down to our last two days at the cottage. Despite the dismal forecast, the actual weather hasn’t been too bad—only one day of rain. It is cooler than we wish, but it hasn’t kept us indoors. It’s foggy over the lake now, but it’s supposed to clear and our last two days are forecast to be warmer and much sunnier. Here’s hoping!

The challenge at Just Us Girls is quickly becoming a favorite. This week is Word Week and the word is: LEAVES. 

I’ve been playing with stencils recently. Another post is coming later this week with two new techniques using stencils, but this one was created with a more traditional technique: ink blending. It’s a quick and easy way to create a card.

Appropriately for this challenge, the name of the stencil is “Tumbling Leaves” by Simon Says. The full stencil would fill a larger square card, but I used just a portion of it for this A2 card. I first applied some Squeezed Lemonade (Distress Oxide ink) onto the leaves, and then added Fern Green (Wendi Vecchi Make Art dye ink.) 

The stencil was layered onto a piece of Gina K Asparagus cardstock and then added to a  cardbase of Simon Says Fog cardstock—both are faves. The sentiment comes from one more favorite: The Greetery’s “Sentiment Suite” series–in this case, “Thinking of You.”

I have a bright and bold floral to share today at two challenges. First at Seize the Birthday: Add Gold, and also at Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Stamp It in STAMPtember! The annual STAMPtember celebration is underway and the inspiration both on their blog and on Instagram is quite amazing!

The flower and colored leaves from Altenew’s “Wallpaper Art” were gold embossed and colored with a loose watercoloring technique and then die cut with the accompanying dies. The flowers were one of my experimental exercises during the #100DayProject.

I then stamped and gold embossed some solid leaves from the same set. Before arranging them, I die cut a large circle with the Essentials: Circles by Ellen Huston from a piece of Soft Stone cardstock and added the panel to a white card base. I also die cut the circle again from gold paper as the Essentials dies cut a circle and a thin frame at the same time. After adding the frame, it was time to arrange the floral elements.

The sentiment from Pink & Main’s “Special Day” was gold embossed on a vellum die cut banner (Neat & Tangled “Skinny Strips.”) Finally I scattered a few gold sequins around the floral cluster.

The current challenge at Time Out is Season, and multiple interpretations of that word can be used. 

The first thing that came to my mind was Autumn. Although there are aspects of the upcoming season I love—fall colors, sweater weather—I’m always somewhat ambivalent about its approach. In Western New York, autumn typically precedes a long, cold, and frequently dark winter. This year I’m dreading it more than usual since the pandemic will require us to move back inside where we’ll be more isolated than ever again. We’ve had fabulous summer weather and have spend a lot of time outdoors—walking, biking, and social distancing with friends on our patio or their decks. I’m not ready to give it up! 

However, this soft, muted card says Autumn to me:

Except for the Stitched Rectangle die by Simon Says, most of the ingredients for the card are from The Greetery. The background was stamped with the “Window Pane Plaid” in Fine Linen ink (PTI). The arrangement of leaves and berries are from “Sealed with a Kiss,” stamped and enhanced with Polychromos pencils.

Once the leaves were arranged, I tied some twine around the panel and attached a birthday greeting from “Sentiment Suite: Birthday” on an accompanying “Sentiment Suite” tag. 

Finally, it was all adhered to a card base of Fine Linen cardstock by Papertrey Ink.

I’m also entering this in the CASe This Sketch challenge. The sketch was designed by a good friend, and although I took some liberty with it, I think it shares the basic elements.

I’m back with another butterfly card for the Just Us Girls Challenge.

This is a pretty atypical card for me, and sadly, one that doesn’t photograph particularly well. It’s much prettier IRL than in the photographs. I don’t often use patterned paper, and rarely use patterned paper as a starting point for a design as I did here. Having recently reorganized and purged my 6X6 paper pads, they are now much more visible. I spotted this geometric paper with gold accents from an older Simon Says Card Kit, and decided to use it with a NBUS cover plate by Reverse Confetti, the Center Circle die.

After die cutting the cover plate, I tried a variety of colored cardstock, and interestingly, this Smoky Shadow by PTI looked the best. The gorgeous butterfly die is an oldie from PTI from the Life is Beautiful set. I die cut the solid image in a brilliant gold paper and overlaid the smoky shadow butterfly after applying a good coat of clear glitter with SpectrumNoir pen.

The sentiment, from Altenew’s Sentiment Strips 2, was gold embossed on a strip of matching cardstock. The gold embossing and the gold paper for the butterfly match the gold triangles in the patterned paper perfectly. Just good luck! 

And my first entry for the September NBUS Challenge.

I’m relatively new to the Just Us Girls Challenge which I found through my new connection with the Color Hues Design Team. (Watch for our first challenge to go live on Tuesday, September 1st!) So far there have been four different types of challenges: Trend (the die cut window card,) Color (I didn’t get a card made for that one,) Photo (the espresso card,) and the new challenge Wild Card which is Butterflies. Like the die cut window challenge, butterflies are a favorite subject, so if I have time, you’re likely to see more than one entry for this challenge.

This week I got myself into a huge reorganization (and purging) of my craft room again. It’s the biggest overhaul I’ve done in a couple of years, but it’s already been transformative. I happened upon a video from Jessica Frost-Ballas of her amazing studio. I have but a fraction of those supplies, but the way she had organized her colored cardstock was the impetus for the overhaul. She also had two links to friends who had inspired her, and I’ve designed my cardstock storage based on a combination of the techniques they used. I ended up consolidating other several categories of products, and purchasing some new containers which opened up some space on my book shelves. I’ve always know that organizing was another one of my hobbies, so it’s been very satisfying. All that to say, we’ll see how many cards I can get made this weekend.

This card was started as part of the #100DayColoringProject. 

After watercoloring the butterfly (Simon Says “Beautiful Butterflies) I did some ink blending on an MFT “Stitched Ovals” die. The sentiment was stamped at the bottom and comes from the same “Beautiful Butterflies” set. I centered the butterfly on the oval with some dimensional tape.

Concord and 9th’s new Ballet Slipper cardstock seemed perfect for the card base, but the design still needed something. Three scored lines to the rescue; a technique I learned from Laurie Willison quite some time ago. 

In addition to working on the reorganization project, I have a project to complete for the League of Women Voters, a stack of cards to get in the mail, and reading to do for my Tuesday study group. Sometimes having your social life decimated by the pandemic is not a totally bad thing. 

Have a great weekend!

It’s not often that I figure out a way to create a card specifically for two challenges. When I have more than one challenge to enter, it’s usually just good luck. Today, however, I sat down to make a card for Just Us Girls and Inspired By . . . and it worked out perfectly.

I knew I had a couple sets of coffee themed stamps, and “Be A Barista” by Reverse Confetti also included the cute sentiment which fit the Inspired By . . . challenge. 

It’s been awhile since I used a tag on a card, but this “Stitched Dress Up Tag” by Simon Says was jus the right size. The patterned paper used for the top of the tag was a loose piece in my stash so I have no idea where it came from. I stamped and colored the two lattes and fussy cut them. I like how the stamp came with two different designs for the latte. I’m strictly a black coffee drinker–no sugar, no cream–so I’m not sure what you call those lovely designs the baristas are able to create. 

I’ve always loved this “Square Grid” embossing folder by Alexandra Renke and it provided just the right contrast for the tag.

A little twine on the tag, and it was done! I’ll be back on Tuesday with a fun announcement, so check back then to see what’s up!