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November 2014 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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I was hoping to have several projects to share for today’s Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, but the days just got away from me, so there’s just one. Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are on their way here from Chicago, and we’re not expecting them until quite late, so maybe I’ll get time to create another card before the hop closes. For now, I have the gift exchange tags that I make annually for the family Christmas. We’ll draw names on Thursday during our Thanksgiving celebration.

This was the inspiration post for this month:

The theme for this month is snow!  Dig out your favorite snow stamps and snowflake dies.  Create the illusion of snow with glitter or mica flakes.  Make some snow filled shaker elements with beads or sequins.  Whatever you decide, get creative and create your own winter wonderland with your paper crafting supplies!    

Right now, we’re expecting 17 for Christmas dinner, quite a few less than last year’s record 27!  I found an set of kraft tags in my drawer that already had the strings tied on, and there were just enough. I love white embossing on kraft, so the snow theme worked well.

SnowflakeTags

The snowflake stamp is from Papertrey’s “Snowflake Serenade,” and the embossing powder is appropriately named: “Winter Wonderland.” Like the tags, the embossing powder has been in my collection for quite some time.

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I tried adding a sentiment to the tags but I liked it a lot more without it. “To” and “From” are stamped on the bag, and I wrote each person’s name in white pen.

I have a few minutes before I have to leave for an appointment, so I’m off to check out the contributions to the blog hop.

Simon Says October Card Kit

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I almost always find lots to love about the monthly Simon Says Card Kit. Usually I tire of kit club subscriptions after a few months, but I’ve never been tempted to give this one up. It’s a great value, and frequently they include some wonderful extras in additon to the stamp sets and papers. In October the theme was coffee and included a great stamp set (“What’s Brewing?”) and a really cute die. I needed a “hello, thinking of you” card as well as a thank you card, and it was easy to come up with the cards I needed with the kit and just a few other supplies.

CoffeeHello

I loved the patterned papers, all from Basic Grey’s “Grand Bazaar.” For this card, I stamped the coffed cup and cut it out by hand. I used the pocket portion of a new stitched tag die by Papertrey Ink to make a focal point for the cup, and stamped the “hello” on the cup.

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Then I stamped the steam and embossed it with rust embossing powder. I loved how it came out. 

The next card uses the cute little cup die that came with the kit as well as a different patterned paper.

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I die cut the cup six times, three with the patterned paper and three more with Doll Pink cardstock for the heart inserts. The great sentiment comes from a Reverse Confetti set “Be a Barista” which I embossed in gold. The cardstock for both cards also came in the kit.

A friend has invited two of us for lunch early next month, so the three coffee cups seemed just right, and now I’m all set with the thank you note. I’ll be entering this one at the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Thanks/Thanksgiving.

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Enjoy!

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I had to take a break from my online class assignments this weekend to make cards for upcoming birthdays, anniversaries, and to send to some friends needing some encouragement.

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Now there’s a bit of fodder for future blog posts as well. Two of the cards used a silver metallic paper I bought last winter from Michael’s for my Christmas Journal pages and I thought I’d get them posted (just under the wire) for the current Virginia’s View Challenge: All Things Metallic.

Enjoy!

I started out die cutting Papertrey Ink’s Phrase Play #4 with the silver paper. After backing the “Enjoy” with black paper, and adding a strip of black and white polka-dot paper, I angled it on an Hawaiian Shores card, stamped the remainder of the sentiment and added a few sequins.

I then had the letter from the negative in the Phrase Play die, so made a second card with the same card base.

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This time I used a black strip of paper to add some interest to the silver letters, a stamped ampersand from “Grand Ampersand”, and “Celebrate” from “Wet Paint II” (all PTI).

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I’ve always loved that ampersand stamp, but this is the first time I’ve been able to put it to good use.

It’s amazing how fast things can change. A week ago today we broke record high temperatures (near 80°). Today we have near record low temperatures with a wind chill of 7°. Fortunately, we did not get the record snows just west of us. My friend’s son has over 5 feet of snow in his driveway, and it’s still snowing. The Thruway is closed from here to the Pennsylvania border! I hope it all gets cleared up before folks need to travel for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday.

World Card Making Day

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Yesterday was World Card Making Day, and I didn’t have any time to sit down to create at all! This afternoon, however, I set aside some time to make four cards that I need to get in the mail this month. The first two cards are a CASE of Maile Belles who created the card for Papertrey Ink’s August release. I didn’t change up a lot, but it was such a perfect design for a young couple celebrating their anniversary and an older couple who tied the knot this weekend. Not often the same card works for a wide age range.

Anniversary

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Both cards use Papertrey Ink’s Soft Stone cardstock and ink. The images came from the Monthly Moments: August collection. It’s rare that I make cards with one of these sets before I use them for Project Life, but every month has a collection of stamps that’s very versatile.  The Happy Anniversary sentiment is from Fillable Frames #4, and the Congratulations from “Banner Sentiments.” The red metallic paper die cut with Simon Says’ Holiday Shapes, and the metallic twine are from Paper Source.

My son-in-law’s sister just had a baby girl this week, and I want to get the card and a small gift into the mail since it has to travel across the pond. 

Baby

I didn’t have any die cuts for a baby card, so the last time I ordered from Papertrey, I tossed the Wonderful Words stamp set and die into my card. Glad I did. They’re extremely reasonable, and it made for a quick card. The patterned paper is from an older Dear Lizzie pad called “Neopolitan.” The little hearts from Hero Arts have also been in my stash for quite a while. 

 

Last, but not least, a card for a friend in Colorado who’s birthday is the end of the month. We’re off on a little road trip this week, and then to Sarah and Adam’s for five days before heading back to Niagara-on-the-Lake for our annual Shaw Festival weekend with Karen and Mike. I had most of the October cards done and ready to mail, but this is the last one.

Sparkle

This is my newest stamp set, “Sparkle and Shine.” You can build multiple messages with the different stamps. The dies were out of stock the very next morning after the release, so I’m still waiting for those. I like the message on vellum, but attaching it to the silver cardstock (Paper Source) turned out to be a challenge. (Didn’t have any trouble with the vellum on the baby card; go figure.) I finally pulled out a little silver clothespin and covered it with Wink of Stella shine. Now, however, the card requires a padded envelope! The ampersand die is from “Grand Ampersand” and the enamel dots are from My Mind’s Eye. 

I’m going to enter the last two cards in Virginia View’s new challenge: Clean and Simple. I love her challenges, and Clean and Simple is dear to my heart, but these are the only ones that are likely to make the deadline.

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Nothing like piling it all up on one post after hardly creating anything in several weeks. What little creative time I’ve had I’ve given to working through the book, You Can Learn to Draw in 30 Days. I have to say, I can definitely see improvement, and I’m looking forward to a semester at Sketchbook Skool that starts while we’re away.

 

 

September 2014 Papertrey Blog Hop

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It’s been the second crazed week in a row, filled with appointments and volunteer commitments, and almost no time at my desk. I’m managing to keep up with a daily sketching lesson, but that’s been about it. I realized this morning that today was the Papertrey Blog Hop, and I loved the inspiration piece.

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The first time I had to sit down and think about it was tonight after dinner. I have to admit it didn’t come out quite the way I envisioned it, but there’s no time to second-guess it either! I know my friend who’s undergoing chemotherapy will enjoy getting it in the mail so I’m happy to have a new card to get off to her.

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“Doodlie Do” is one of my favorite sets and I don’t give it anywhere near the attention it deserves. The cardstock is Enchanted Evening with a bit of Sweet Blush for the greeting. I tried to match the colors in the scarf and sweater with Copic markers, and added the touch of orange in the scarf to brighten up the flower. The card design is one of the sketches Nicole provided in the September inspiration post.

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Instead of buttons, I used the flower and leaves from “Doodlie Do” and added a few enamel dots. Off to see a few other entries before I head to bed. I’ll be back tomorrow with the final post for Rinda’s Summer Scavenger Hunt. 

A Happy Birthday Coming!

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Skylar will turn three years old on Sunday. They’re planning a party at home, and I’m sure to be back with photos then. I wanted to post her card today since the challenge for patterned paper at Virginia’s View ends tonight.

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The card also fits this week’s Simon Says Wednesday Challenge:  Tag It!

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This is another card made with the Simon Says August Card Kit. I just loved the patterned paper, and started with that. It’s been a bit cool for ice cream recently, but it’s supposed to warm up again. Hopefully it will be a nice day for the party on Sunday. 

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The images on the tag were colored with Copic markers and I combined stamps from two sets to create the sentiment. The ice cream cone has glitter added to it and I popped up the cherry with some dimensional tape.

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The inside of the card took way longer that the card itself. It took three stamp sets as well as some partial stamping to create the greeting I wanted. I’d get almost done, and the last stamp wouldn’t be clear. I think I did it four or five times until I finally decided it was good enough.

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It’s hard to believe that both my grandchildren will be three years old by the end of the year. Where does the time go?

 

Some More Cupcakes

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The cupcake card making continued for the better part of a morning, and here are two more. The first one is based on the current Retrosketch challenge.

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And it’s another entry to Virginia’s View Patterned Paper challenge.

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On our way to Canada last weekend, we made a quick stop in Buffalo so I could run into Buffalo Stamps & Stuff to pick up some stamp cleaner that I can’t seem to find anywhere else. I actually didn’t come out of there with too much extra, but I did pick up an Avery Elle stamp set “Cupcakes.” The store has a monthly coupon that I was able to apply to the stamp set. The sentiment is from Lockhart which I’ve owned for years.

The cardstock is Bazzil, and the patterned papers are from “The Good Life” by Fancy Pants (the cupcake liner) and “Mother Goose” by Graphic 45 (the stars). I used clear Stickles to add the glitter to the cupcake which shows up a lot better in a photograph than the Gelly Roll Stardust pen (which I love in real life!) I colored the cherry with a Copic marker and bumped it out with a bit of dimensional tape.

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The last cupcake card started with a stamp from Mama Elephant’s “Carnival Toppers.” This time I stamped the cupcake liner on some vellum and colored it on the back with a Copic marker.  Once again the Gelly Roll glitter pen looks “dirty” in the photo.

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I love this sentiment from the Mama Elephant “Carnival Toppers.” It was the sentiments in this set that prompted the purchase and started this cupcake card craze. 

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The card is a ready-made one by Memory Box, and it turns out to be an odd shade of pink. I finally found a Copic that matched it after trying a couple others that didn’t work so well. I added two strips of Little B Washi tape to the top and bottom of the card. 

I think that’s it for cupcakes. Now I’m hungry for one. I should head out to Deb’s. She makes the most beautiful cupcakes ever!

Three Cupcakes

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I recently purchased a couple new stamp sets that featured cupcakes. Once I got going on the cards, I ended up pulling out some old cupcake and sentiment stamps and dies as well. The first two cards for today are for the current CAS-ology Challenge: Three.

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And I’m also linking the first one to Virginia’s View new challenge: Patterned Paper.

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This card combines an old stamp colored with Copic markers by Lockhart with a new sentiment from Mama Elephant’s “Carnival Toppers.” The patterned papers are both from the “Color Wash” line by Pink Paislee. In several photos, the Gelly Roll Stardust Glitter pen shows up as a dirty gray. Not so in real life as you can see in the close up.

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The next card is my favorite. I purchased the Savvy “Cupcake Set” nearly a year ago, and have yet to pull it out. It took me awhile to find the coordinating die, “Cake Plates,” but there’s really no excuse for waiting so long. I’m quite sure it won’t be a year before I pull them out again.

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I die cut the plate from a piece of Paper Source gold cardstock, and the cupcake papers from a sheet of orange vellum. I have no idea where I picked that up! The cupcakes and cherries were die cut from scraps in my scrap pile. I added some Dark Chocolate Ink to the top of the three cupcakes. The sentiment is an old one from Lockhart stamps that I bought at the same time I purchased the three cupcakes stamp for the first card.

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I love those cupcake paper dies! Hope you’re having a cupcake kind of day!

A Simply Stamped Card

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It’s Stamptember at Simon Says Stamps, where they celebrate stamping all month long, starting with a huge release of new stamps, dies, and stencils. As part of that celebration, the Wednesday Challenge is “Stamping.” There’s nothing but stamping on this card—rather unusual, actually—which makes it a great one layer card for mailing.

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Here’s my simply stamped card.

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The floral focal point was done with the stamp set included in the Simon Says June Card Kit. I love all the little pieces that come together to create a pretty bouquet of sorts. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s “Live, Love, Life” set. I used some of my favorite colors—orange, yellow, and green—thinking they are nice fall colors as well. Not really ready to admit Fall is in the air, but it is. 

Have a great weekend!

 

A Bookish Birthday

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One of my very good friends is an avid (and very fast) reader. She easily averages more books a week than I do in a month, so the September Simon Says Card Kit was a perfect match for her birthday card. It’s all about books and reading.

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Here’s my first take with this stamp set.

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The patterned papers are all from October Afternoon’s “Public Library” line. I stamped a shelf for the books and plant, and found a perfect sentiment in Papertrey Ink’s “All Booked Up” set.  I love the inside sentiment from “All Booked Up” as well.

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Virginia’s View has a new challenge up for this month using patterned paper. It’s a perfect challenge for getting to some of those beautiful patterned papers in kits and my 6X6 paper pad collection.

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I’m also in under the wire for Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes.

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CAS(e) This Sketch #89

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I’m in just under the wire for this sketch challenge. It’s one of my favorites, but it’s been awhile since I played along. Yesterday after finishing a birthday card for Skylar (she’ll be three next month!), I started to organize my Simon Says Card Kits. I challenged myself to make a card for each kit as I went through it, and ended up with several cards. This one fits the new sketch at CAS(e) This Sketch.

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We’re going to be traveling the first part of October, so instead of just looking ahead one month to see what cards I’ll need, I’m looking ahead two months. I need a total of 13 cards, but just one of them is an anniversary. So now I’m set for that.

Anniversary

The two patterned papers and the cardstock came from the June Simon Says Card Kit.  The gold paper I backed the hearts with is from the last sheet of a paper I purchased at the first independent stamp store in Rochester. It’s been closed at least 15 years now. I’d love to know where to find more. The banner die and “Banner Sentiments” stamp are from Papertrey Ink. Those Banner Sentiments are sure to get a lot of use. The sequins are from a multi-colored pack from Michael’s. I keep pulling out the gold and silver ones, and pretty soon I may need to buy a pack of just gold and silver.

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I never made it to the gym yesterday, so as soon as this is linked up, I’m off before I can find excuses today!

August 2014 Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

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We had such a busy weekend, it wasn’t until this morning that I had time to create a couple of cards for this month’s Papertrey Ink Blog Hop. We were away last month, and since this is one of my favorite blog hops I didn’t want to miss it two months in a row. Here’s the inspiration piece:

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I’m a big fan of polka dots and have seen some really nice cards and planners for 2015 using gold polka dots so that’s where I started.

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I randomly stamped two sizes of polka dots from “Polka Dot Basics,” and layered it on a sheet of metallic gold paper, and then onto a True Black card base. The die cut is from the Wonderful Words set, and I selectively stamped and embossed a part of the Happy Birthday sentiment from Alt&New’s “Label Love.”

For the second card, I used just one of the polka dot stamps, and a die cut from the new-to-me “Wet Paint Cuts.”

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This time I matted the polka dots onto True Black cardstock and then onto a Hawaiian Shores card. I’m guessing I’ll find quite a bit of inspiration from the other entries this month, so I’m off to check them out.

Two More for Class

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Today is the last day you can upload cards to the galleries for the Online Card Class:  Stretch Your Stamps 2. I have a LOT more things I want to try, but this morning I took time to try two more. The first is a card based on a tag created by Laura Basson using a technique, “over the edge.” The stamp itself is quite a bit bigger than what is stamped on the tag, but it works perfectly. I love just about everything Laura Basson creates and her tags (using watercolor for one, and Copics for the other) are no exception. I decided to go with the Copics this morning as it’s been awhile since I colored an image.

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I didn’t have the same Copics Laura used so I ended up blending a bright orange with a bright pink—never tried two such different colors but it worked very well. The Sakura Gelly Roll white pen really made the flower centers pop.

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I used a new Papertrey Stitched Rectangle die cut with New Leaf cardstock (PTI), and mounted it on a top-folded white card. The twine is from a large roll I bought at a gift shop earlier this spring. Both the floral stamp and the sentiment are from Clearly Besotted “Fresh Flowers.” It’s a gorgeous set. I’m linking this up to the Fusion Challenge: Floral Brights, and the Simon Says Monday Challenge: Anything Goes.

Floral brights copy

 

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The second card uses a new (to me) Avery Elle set called “Rounded Diamonds.” It took longer to find three ink pads I could layer than it did to create the rest of the card. This one follows very closely the design of Nicol Magouirk’s card in class. She die cut a window into hers, but I don’t have the dies for this set so I stamped on a white card, and mounted it on a card made from Simon Says’ Smoke cardstock. It’s another gray/yellow combo.

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The sentiment from Paper Smooches “Sentiment Sampler” fit right onto one of the rounded diamonds. Some Studio Calico and Pretty Pink Posh sequins were layered to finish off the card. 

 

Using a Graphic Stamp

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Days 7 and 8 of the Online Card Class focused on using graphic stamps. I have just a few sets, and was most interested in these lessons since I’m never quite sure what to do with them. Debby Hughes is a wonderful designer and I started with her random stamping video. 

I got out another unused stamp set by Alt&New called “Sohcahtoa.” It’s a mix of triangles and some great sentiments. Perfect for this technique and for two challenges:  Moxie Fab’s Trendy Triangles, and Addicted to CAS:  Geometric.

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Grey and yellow have been a trendy combination for awhile. I purchased a gray and yellow scarf in April that I just love, so thought it would be a good combination for the card.

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I used two shades of Simon Says cardstock:  Fog and Slate. I stamped on a piece of Neenah Solar White. The sentiment is also from Alt&New called “Label Love.” I finished it off with a few enamel dots from My Minds Eye. I need to replenish my enamel dot collection soon. I keep using the same colors over and over.

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Hoping to be back later with another card to post in the galleries for the Online Card Class before they close tomorrow, but the list of other projects is pretty long.

A Trio of Rainbow Cards

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Kristina Werner produced the first video for the Online Card Class: Stretch Your Stamps 2 , and demonstrated how to create a watercolored background using the Hero Arts Highline Ironwork stamp.

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I photographed my piece when I was done, but didn’t check the photo carefully, and it was too out of focus to share. Unusual, but it happens when you’re in a hurry. You may be able to get the idea from the cards that follow. After watercoloring the piece, I cut it apart in strips and with several die cuts, and managed to create three cards. I still have a couple of hearts left over.

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I used the Wonderful Words: Birthday stamp and die from Papertrey Ink for this as well as a four hearts die from Simon Says.

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This one uses a couple of the strips I cut, and Wonderful Words: Thank You from Papertrey.

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I love the bright rainbow colors against both black and white, but they work with bright cardstock as well. Here’s the last card with Sunshine cardstock from Simon Says.

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It’s another Wonderful Words stamp and die (“Hello”), along with a few wood veneer hearts from Studio Calico that I colored with a Copic marker and highlighted with a bit of Wink of Stella glitter. I stacked the die cut again with several words cut from the Sunshine cardstock.

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Watercoloring the white embossed piece took a bit of time and patience, but it was well worth the effort to get three cards into the file!

I’ll be linking these up to the Simon Says Monday Challenge which is “Anything Goes.”

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