The current call for Cute cards at AAA Birthday is the perfect time to post another puppy card! This time I created two of the same card. One will be sent, the other for the stash.

The layout is based on one I saw on Pinterest some time ago. It uses some more NBUS stamps and dies (MFT Canine Companions)  as well as some of the oldest patterned paper in my stash from AMuse Studios. The sentiment is from another newish set from MFT: Woof Pack. I used the images from that set on an earlier card. 

Once again I cut the images with my Scan N Cut and then colored them with Copic markers.  I used two favorite dies for the card design: Simon Says Stitched Rectangles, and Stitched Circles. There’s dimensional tape behing the white panel to give those puppies a little breathing room. 

This is also off to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes, and to NBUS because one more product is out of the NBUS box.

It’s been quite awhile since I took one of the Online Card Classes so when a new one,  Extraordinary Embossing Folders was advertised, I decided to enroll. There’s so much going on at our house right now, it’s hard to find the time to watch all the videos. As always, they are long and comprehensive. It’s Day 3, and I have watched Day 1’s videos and managed to create this card.

The topic was partial embossing which is something that seems so obvious, I’m rather chagrined that I never thought of it myself. I do like it, however, and will use it again. I was also inspired by a challenge that’s relatively new to me: As You See It. Here’s there image for the challenge that calls for 1) an embossing folder, 2) a die cut, 3) white, and 4) one additional color. 

The embossing folder is Tapestry from Gina K and the die cut sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio. I decided to score a line between the embossing folder and the bottom portion of the card. 

Hopefully, I’ll be back before too long with some more cards from class.

A quick and CAS birthday card for one of our male friends. It was quick because the foiled background, Spellbinders’ Skinny Stripes Background, was in my stash, and the gold foiled sentiment was one of Pinkfresh Studio’s Foiled Sentiments 3. 

I trimmed down the foiled background and added a gold border before adding it to the black card base.

I backed the sentiment with dimensional dots and punched three stars from a very old paper punch, adding them as well with some dimension. If only every birthday card for a guy came together so easily!

I’m sending this off to both of the AAA Challenges: AAA Birthday where CAS is the challenge, and to AAA Cards Challenge where they are celebrating their 10th birthday–quite the accomplishment! It’s also off to Addicted to Stamps and More where Birthday is the theme.

I’ve always been a fan of bright colors on a dark background, so that’s where I started with these two cards. Both use Spellbinders Fresh Picked Buttercups. 

I die cut these buttercups with Concord and 9th’s Buttercup cardstock (a perfect match!) I added some ink blending with the same C&9th ink to the middle of the flower before adding a die cut center from orange cardstock. The leaves were die cut with Paper Source’s Clover cardstock. 

I die cut a piece of black cardstock with Concord & 9th’s Triangle Background die and added it to a Buttercup card base. The sentiment, gold embossed, is from Pinkfresh Studio’s Basic Banners: Celebrate.

The flowers here were die cut from white cardstock and ink blended with Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink. I added yellow enamel dots for the centers this time.

This time I die cut the black panel with Simon Says Detail Petal Coverplate, and added it to a black card base with dimensional foam. The sentiment is from Pink and Main’s Special Day which is one of my most used sentiment sets. 

I’m sending these off to TicTacToe where I used the diagonal Flowers, Free, Die Cuts and to Triple B – always looking for Birds, Butterflies, and/or Blooms.

It’s a brand new year, and brand new color challenge at Color Hues! Marcia is our hostess and has chose a wonderful, wintery mix: Light Blue and Navy.

The November release from Pinkfresh Studio had just one stamp, stencil, and die set that I just had to have!  As soon as the Folk Snowflake came I knew it would be exactly what I wanted for this color combination.

After embossing the snowflake in silver, I colored the stencil I used Pinkfresh Studio’s Slumber and Stargazer inks along with Honey Bee’s Metallic Silver ink. The background is also from Pinkfresh–last year’s Snowflakes Coverplate. I layered it on some Papertrey Ink Spring Rain paper. Both pieces were die cut with the rectangles from Gina K’s Masterlayout #1 which I use over and over again. Then I added the beautiful snowflake.

Since I had added dimension behind the larger panel, I chose not to add any to the snowflake. I did layer the silver embossed sentiment, also from Folk Snowflake, with two pieces of #110 pound paper die cut to make it stand out a bit more. The final touch was adding the Iridescsent Drop from Pinkfresh to the center of the snowflake. 

Please check out the fabulous designs by our Guest Designer, Bonnie, and the Design Team. I’m sure you’ll be inspired to join us! The challenge is open until January 14th at 9:00 AM.

It’s very clear that I missed the Wednesday part of this challenge, and once again, I benefited by Amy’s extended deadline.

I actually created the cards on Thursday but was away all day Friday and again most of today. But finally tonight, I had a chance to get the cards photographed and the post written. This month I chose two Christmas Stamps, a winter scene by Memory Box and a simple sentiment by savvy stamps.

I actually made two cards–one stamped in Dark Indigo ink (Papertrey Ink) and one in black. There’s always a chance stamping with a woodblock stamp will result in a less than perfect result. As you can see in the card on the left, I had to white emboss the sentiment on a piece of Dark Indigo to cover up the sentiment where I didn’t get a clean result.  

I decided on a square format and a simple matting that matched the ink I used. Another two CAS Christmas cards in the stash! 

Thanks, as always, to Amy for hosting these opportunities encouraging me to get out my wooden stamps!

I was honored to have my card chosen as the winner at Seize the Birthday recently, and I’m now honored to be the Surprise Party Guest for the current challenge.

The current challenge is a color challenge: Hot Pink and Lime.

Luckily for me, I purchased a pack of Paper Source paper called Brights a few months ago, and it included both pink and lime. I used a design technique I’ve often seen, but never tried before, adding strips of colored cardstock to create a background.

I wanted to add a bit of sparkle to the mix, so die cut some strips of metallic silver paper as well. I used three sets of dies to cut the strips: The Stamp Market’s 1/4″ Quick Strips and Ellen Hutson’s Color Me Strips-Large which includes two dies of different widths. Then it was just the process of deciding how many, and in what order, to put the strips of paper.

The bold sentiment by Simon Says, It’s Your Birthday, was die cut three times and stacked for some dimension. I cut down the piece enough to have a narrow border and added it to a black card base with dimensional tape. (Hard to see in the photos.)

Finally, to add a bit more sparkle, I added three Pinkfresh Studio black jewels. 

Thanks to the Seize the Birthday team for the honor of being the Surprise Party Guest! It was so much fun.

Today’s the day to post the rest of the photos for the SPSH kindly hosted by MaryLou of Patio Postcards.  I got a late start, but only had three photos left to take after the last posting which is here. I had several ideas for #3 Something Netted or Webbed but finally caved on these avocados in netted bags at the grocery store.

There’s no excuse for the next photo: School. All summer I planned to drive by the school where I taught for 35 years to take a photo. Never did, so at the last minute on our way to dinner at a friend’s house, we drove by this parochial school, and I got the photo. Have to say, I’m disappointed with myself over this one.

The last photo was one of the alternates (which I didn’t need) but gave me an excuse for one more chocolate almond ice cream cone which is definitely “a favorite summer taste.” When Sarah was here with our family we made multiple trips to Abbott’s for her favorite ice cream, period!

Thanks again to Mary Lou for creating the list and hosting our results!

When Hero Arts announced their last kit, I decided to order one knowing I had nothing like it, and would be able to use it during the fall season when I have lots of birthday cards to send. This is the first iteration, but not the first try. A white lacquer pen was included in the kit to be used to add details to the mushrooms. I could not manage to get consistently small dots with the pen, so started all over and used a gelly roll #10 pen for the white this time around. 

The kit comes with a set of three stencils. In the sample directions, they used one ink color for each stencil, but one thing I love about autumn are the multi-colored leaves so I did a bit of masking and used tiny blending brushes to add a bit more color to the wreath.

Once it was completed I decided to add it with a bit of foam tape to a Hero Arts card that’s been in my stash for a long time. If I were to name it I’d call in “paper bag brown” and I’d like to have some cardstock the same color. 

The kit also comes with a stamp set filled with sentiments–they were all a bit busy for me and none were specifically birthday messages so I chose one from Gina K’s Wreath Builder set. 

Not surprisingly, a variety of challenges are looking for fall inspired cards: The Four Seasons Challenge, Just Us Girls which has a fall-inspired moodboard as does Inkspirational, and finally, Seize the Birthday where the topping is Use Fall Colors.