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Awesome!

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Just a quick post to share a card I made for a friend who has left her current job. I volunteered for the organization for many years, chairing a committee for seven year where she was the staff support. Over those years, we’ve become good friends, and I created this card for her with a note inside to celebrate her many accomplishments.

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The card design is a CASE of several cards I found on Pinterest. I started by die cutting strips of colorful papers with The Stamp Market 1/4 inch Quick Strips, and adhering them diagonally in the center of the card. 

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I die cut the glasses from Concord & 9th’s Spectacular Shades from glossy black cardstock. I added some acetate behing the lenses (hard to see in the photo, but it adds a bit of realism to the glasses.) I added the panel to a cardbase made from Concord & 9th’s Marmelade. 

This is off to the current TicTacToe Challenge where I used the right hand column: Layers, Stripes, Bright Colors. 

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Color Hues #90

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It will already be July when this post goes live, and I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. We spent a week going to Wisconsin, flying with our 12 year old grandson to Washington, D.C. for a few days, driving home, and then a week of commuting between home and a cottage on Conesus Lake Tracy’s family had rented. I was glad to be home for a week before we leave again for Chautuaqua Institute. We’ve been there before but never just the two of us. It’s sure to be relaxing, inspiring, and informative. This week’s theme is Artificial Intelligence. 

Nancy, our fabulous leader at Color Hues, has chose a wonderful color combination: 

CH #90 White and Aqua.001

I knew almost at once what I wanted to try. Some time ago I purchased Matte White foil from Spellbinders and wanted to try it out on aqua cardstock. Concord & 9th’s cardstock foils beautifully, and their Aqua Sky cardstock was the perfect color. It’s not often a card ends up looking exactly as I imagined it, but this one did.

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I chose an old favorite from Pinkfresh Studio, Quadrant Backdrop and ink blended it with the coordinating stencils with Simon Says Sea Foam ink. I chose Concord & 9th’s Oceanside for the cardbase and sentiment. I love Waffle Flower’s “Hey There” sentiments, and this one fit perfectly.

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I added a piece of dimensional foam behind the main panel, and stacked three of the sentiments together for a bit more dimension. Adding some white enamel dots was the final touch.

Edited to add: In my attempt to work through my NBUS box, I created a second Aqua and White card with a new-to-me stencil, Frosty Lace. By the name, I’m thinking it was meant to be a winter-themed stencil but it looks like it could be a sea foam stencil as well.

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Like my first card, I used Concord and 9th cardstocks and Simon Says inks to ink blend, primarily Seafoam again, adding some Surf ink to add some dimension. I decided to cut the piece down to a square card. 

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This time I used a gold foiled sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio’s Favorite Things Betterpress plate, and added some gold pearls to finish it off.

As always, you’ll find lots of inspiration from our guest, Nance, and the Design Team on the Color Hues Blog. Please join us in the gallery!

I’m sending the second card off to Just Us Girls: Anything Goes Stencils and to Darnell’s new July NBUS gallery.

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Birthday Star

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As soon as I saw the new challenge at Seize the Birthday: Add a Star, I knew I wanted to finally pull out The Greetery’s Rustic Star dies. I used just the large set this time, but have some good ideas for the smaller one as well. I went with a pink and blue color combo because two of my granddaughters have birthdays coming up, and frankly I could give this to either of them.

Unlike the last card I made for a challenge I didn’t have any preconceived ideas about this one. I die cut the start from bright pink and silver glitter paper and then hunted for a sentiment set that would work. Papertrey Ink’s Sparkle and Shine had just what I wanted. The next decision was finding an embossing folder for the background. Lifestyle Craft’s tiny star folder was perfect. 

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Once I had embossed the sentiment for the front of the card, I pulled out another NBUS product, Spellbinder’s Sentiment Labels. Instead of using the die cut to slip through the label, I pulled out some silver cord. I used some dimensional foam behind the embossed panel, and added two narrow strips to the label so it would lay flat after the cord was inserted. Once I had the star adhered, I found a tiny rhinestone star in my stash for the center. 

Sparkle

Sparkle and Shine also includes two large sentiment die cuts. I chose Sparkle for the inside sentiment, embossing the sub-sentiment in silver on blue paper. I couldn’t decide whether to add some rhinestone stars to the inside, so I’ll wait to make that decision until it’s time to give the card away.

In addition to Seize the Birthday, there are some other open challenges that are perfect for this card: Double D: Reach for the Stars, Can You Handle the Pressure (must use an embossing folder), and NBUS–two more NBUS products put to use!

06-27-AddAStarStar collageHandleThePressure NBUS




AAA Birthday Challenge: Cute!

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#62 June

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.

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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. 

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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.

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Woodblock Wednesday: June Edition

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I look forward to Woodblock Wednesday every month, and actually wish I had saved a few more of my woodblock stamps. I got down to the wire this month, just finishing this last night. The stamp is a Magenta one that I used over and over before the stamping world exploded with acrylic and red rubber stamps. I was in the mood to watercolor so got out my Daniel Smith palette and mixed up a bit of yellow, green, and blue.

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The sketch is one I saw on one of the recent videos by Jill Foster for Penny Black, a series called “Permission to Play.” All her sketches utilize embossing folders, and this is a new one of mine: 3-D Checkered Squares by Altenew. I cut a narrow strip of the watercolor paper to add a border where the watercolor and the embossing folder meet. 

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The sentiment also comes from a new set: All Occasion Script from The Greetery. I’ll be tossing this in the fabulous gallery at NBUS to celebrate using another two new products, along with one of my oldest!

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Just Us Girls

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It’s been a wild two weeks, but finally we’re home for a few days, and I’ve had time to create a card for the Just Us Girls Challenge which has a fabulous moodboard as inspiration.

Used as my JUGS moodboard

As soon as I saw the upper left corner of this moodboard, I thought of the Ellen Hutson Abstract Mountain die. It had been a long time since I pulled it out, but I had a lot of fun trying to replicate the colors as best I could. I used three colors of cardstock, and quite a bit of ink blending to get the look I wanted.

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I added a bit of foam tape behind the moon, but that’s the only dimension. The gold foiled sentiment is from Spellbinder’s Always and Forever sentiment strips and dies. No embellishment needed.

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In addition to Just Us Girls, I’m sending this off to Inkspirational whose moodboard feautres the same colors, and to Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts & Stencils. 

Ink Mood Board - perhaps for May or June 2024 Diecuts

With Sympathy

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The Paper Players has a CAS Challenge for Sympathy or Thinking of You cards. The older I get the more important it is to have a few of these cards in my stash. I’m always a fan of CAS cards, but especially for Sympathy cards where I really believe “less is more.” 

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This one layer card is about a minimalist as it gets, but I think it is elegant in its simplicity. The stamps are both from Simon Says. The leaves from. Stronger Together and the sentiment from Sketched Flowers. 

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I’m sending this to AAA Cards where it’s always CAS and this time with a masculine option. This is certainly appropriate for men as well as women. 

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Celebrate!

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I couldn’t resist ordering from The Greetery’s April release: The Confetti Encore, but I haven’t had much time to play with them. I needed a quick birthday card, though, so pulled out three of the new products: Hey, Honeycomb Balloons, the Inflated Sentiments stamp set, and Curly Q Streamers die. I also own the Ticker Tape Hot Foil plate, but decided in the interest of time to use an already foiled background from my stash.

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I die cut balloons from my scraps, and the streamers from gold metallic paper. The main sentiment was gold embossed and the smaller one stamped in black. Everything from Betsy Veldman works together beautifully, and these stamps are no exception.

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This is off to Just Us Girls where it’s Word Week: CELELBRATE! I have more ideas for this challenge, but our week is busier than usual so we’ll see how much time I can find for crafting!

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Happy Father’s Day

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It’s unusual, but here is a second post for the day. The new Color Hues Challenge started today as well; scroll down for that post. Last year I purchased Concord & 9th’s Greatest Hits. During one of their recent sales, I picked up the accompanying For the Record.  I combined parts of both sets to make Father’s Day cards for Tracy and Adam. Since I used For the Record last year for Matt’s card, his card was a totally different design this year. These three guys are really the best. dads. ever.  

Adam and Tracy’s cards were essentially the same, and both are a CASE of Carissa Wiley’s intro to the set on the Concord & 9th site. I made my background much cleaner and changed the colors, but the basic design stayed pretty much the same. 

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I love the way Carissa layered the main sentiment. It makes for a pretty thick card, but this year neither card needed to be mailed. We just came home from a trip to Washington, D.C. with Caleb, our 12 year old grandson, so I left Adam’s card with Sarah when we left yesterday. Here’s a close up:

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The orange is layered with the blue and the gold. The gold record is attached with a brad and spins around. Here’s a look at the inside of the card:

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The record die cut with glossy black cardstock is from Greatest Hits and the sentiment is from Pink and Main’s Special Day.

Matt’s card is a totally different design with one of my favorite color combination – they work for almost anyone:  red, gray, black and white.

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I started by die cutting strips of four colors with The Stamp Market’s 1/4″ Quick Strips and starting at the bottom, adhered them on a diagonal. The Pinkfresh Adore Alphabet is one of my favorites. The sub-sentiment was from the Concord & 9th Greatest Hits.

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I’m sending these off to Addicted to Stamps and More: Die Cuts and Inspired By: Pops.

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Color Hues #89

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Marcia has chosen a very lovely color combo for the Color Hues Challlenge this time, Sage and Pink.

CH #89 Sage and Pink.001

This is, once again, the second card I created for this challenge but it has a slightly different story than previously. I created a card I was pretty happy with, photographed it, but hadn’t gotten around to posting it. Then a day or two later I created this card:

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This card was intended for a Pinkfresh Studio Challenge, but when it was completed, I realized I had used (once again) a sage and pink colorway. Clearly this color combo speaks to me. I like the card even better than the first one, so saved it for this challenge. It represents a lot of firsts for me: 1) I had never dry embossed using a stencil, 2) I had never foiled using a Betterpress plate, and all of the elements on the card are ones that I have never used before. 

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The Betterpress Plate, coloring stencil, and die are Pinkfresh Studio’s Amazing Things, and the stencil is Pinkfresh Studio’s Diamond Plaid.  I used a new die from My Favorite Things, Elegant Rectangles, to cut the background for the floral. The sentiment was also foiled with a Betterpress plate from Spellbinders, Always and Forever Sentiment Strips.

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The closer view shows how beautifully the Betterpress plate foils. All the inks I used were from Pinkfresh Studio:  Sage, Ballet Slippers, and Sparkling Rose. 

As always, you’ll find lots of inspiration from our Guest Designer, Amy, and the Design Team on the Color Hues Blog.

I’m sending this off to the Time Out Challenge where the quote speaks of flowers, to Triple B for Blooms,  and to NBUS for all the new products and techniques I used.

TimeOutTriple B Challenge BadgeNBUS

 

 

Framed

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The Inkspirational Challenge has a new theme: Frame . . .

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and I had a new (to me) stamp so it was time to put this beautiful floral to use.

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The gorgeous flower is from the Alex Syberia Midnight Blooms set. It’s my first Alex Syberia stamp set and certainly won’t be my last. I colored it with the accompanying stencil, using just two inks, but using a light hand and then a heavier hand to create the dimension. 

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The stunning sentiment is from The Greetery’s Scripted Sentiments. I was on a long waitlist for this to come in, and it was worth the wait. I love the way the flourishes just fill the empty space in this design. The frame is from Pinkfresh Studio, Notched Corner Frames which worked out perfectly here. I added five pink jewels from Pinkfresh Studio for a bit of sparkle.

In additional to Inkspirational, this is off to Triple B (must use bird, butterfly or bloom) and to NBUS to celebrate the first use of both stamps used on this card.

 

 

Color Hues #88

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With another turn of the calendar my hopes for summer increase dramatically! I’m the hostess for the new Color Hues Challenge and I chose:

CH #88 Yellow and Blue.001

Clearly I’m hoping for lots of sunshine and bright blue skies–and my happy card reflects my optimism. 

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Although I’ve posted some cards using the Spellbinders Fresh Picked Buttercups, it was actually purchased with this color combination in mind.  I die cut a bundle of the buttercups from yellow cardstock and used some Distress Ink to add some dimension to the centers. Brown is always an accepted neutral for the Color Hues Challenge so I chose that for the centers of the buttercups.  For a background I chose the Reverse Confetti Center Circle Cover Pattern. I love the stitched details and the circle was a great place to arrange the blooms. 

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I added dimensional tape behind the cover plate, and some dimensional dots beneath some of the buttercups. I used the same cardstock and Distress Ink to create an ombre look for the die cut sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio’s Scripted Greetings. The sub-sentiment is from Papertrey Ink’s Scripted stamp set. A few gold pearls from Pinkfresh finished it off. 

I hope you’ll find time to join us in the gallery at Color Hues which will be open until June 14th. Be sure to stop by the blog for inspiration from my very talented friends on the Design Team!

Happy Birthday

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If you read my blog regularly, you might remember I borrowed the Vintage Type dies by The Greetery from a friend to create this card. Before I returned them I die cut several from black cardstock, and here is the first of them. They make for a great masculine card, and this one is off to a very close friend of ours. 

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I love black and gold on kraft cardstock so used that to die cut the mat with the Crimped Frame from The Greetery. The sentiment is from Just My Type, also from The Greetery.

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Photographing this card gave me my first opportunity to show off a birthday gift that I picked up at The Blue House bookstore in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Both Sarah and Tracy gifted me my purchases that day! These are paper pens. They write beautifully, and are almost perfectly flat so they can act as a bookmark as well as a pen. I’m saving them for photo props for the time being. 

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Here’s a closer look at the typewriter. 

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It’s off to the Seize the Birthday Challenge where Use Metallics is the special challenge. I’m not sure the typewriter has enough gold to qualify, but Seize the Birthday always allows an “anything goes” birthday card as well. I thought I had lined up the sentiment appropriately, but when I finally realized how it should have been done, it was too late to move it–everything was glued down!

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A Sketch Challenge

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I don’t often play along with sketch challenges (and you’ll see my lack of experience soon), but when I saw the Paper Players Sketch Challenge I knew it was the perfect opportunity to use one of Gina K’s Master Layout 11 dies which have been housed in my NBUS box for a very long time.

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It’s a “window die” with four sections so you can see why I was anxious to use it. However, I did not look at the sketch carefully enough, so the first card I made looks like this:

Best

Not necessarily a bad card, but you can see that I totally ignored two major portions of the sketch. The second time around, I was much more careful, and I much prefer this card:

Sweet Friend

Most of the ingredients remained the same: Hawaiian Shores cardstock, white woodgrain cardstock, butterflies and leaves from Pinkfresh Studio’s Fluttering Butterflies Washi tape and dies, and the beautiful patterned paper from Altenew,  Gel Printing Soft Washes. Both sentiments were foiled in gold on white. The first sentiment came from Pinkfresh Studio’s  Favorite Things Sentiments, and the second from Spellbinders Betterpress Always and Forever.

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I’m not likely to forget the need to commit all the parts of a sketch to my memory the next time, but it’s nice to have two more cards in the stash. I’m sending the top card off to the Triple B Challenge: Birds, Blooms &/or Butterflies. Triple B always offers a gorgeous inspiration piece, but it’s truly just that, and there’s no requirement to follow the colors (as beautiful as they are for May)!

TB June 24

 

Woodblock Wednesday: May 2024

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It’s time for a new Woodblock Wednesday! I’m throughly enjoying going through the collection of wooden stamps I’ve kept. I wish I’d saved a few more. When I went through them looking for an image for April’s Woodblock Wednesday, I pulled out the two stamps I knew I wanted to use this month. They’ve been sitting on my desk, patiently waiting. Both stamps are from Uptown Design Co. and designed by Holly Pond Hill.

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I don’t have any memory of purchasing them, but I’m quite sure my daughter and her love of chocolate cake was a motivation for the purchase. Since she doesn’t read my blog, it’s likely this will be her birthday card this year. In some cases she has a great memory for things given to her many years ago, so I wonder if she’ll have any recollection of it. Luckily for me, both stamps stamped perfectly the very first time. I pulled out my Prismacolor pencils to color the cute little mouse.

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After trimming the card down and adhering it to a light gray card base, I cut three Double Scalloped Stitched Frames from Poppy Stamps and layered them for some dimension before adding them around the image. It’s another CAS card as it needs no embellishment. 

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