The Card Concept: Happy Mother's Day

There’s a new inspiration challenge at The Card Concept and the theme is Happy Mother's Day.

That tablescape is gorgeous!  Sadly, my family is lucky if we even eat at the table!!  Although we definitely do for holidays and family events.  I have seasonal placemats, salt and pepper shakers and I even have trios of wine bottles with little sparkly LED lights in them - and I trade those out for bottles with seasonal labels or colors!

My Clean and Layered card took inspiration from the flower colors but what really caught my eye was the drama of the rich blue. The blue on my card is a different blue, but without the inspiration I would never have thought to pair that blue with the softly colored flowers.  I LOVE the contrast!

The dies are Craft a Flower: Cosmos from Altenew.  Aren't they amazing?  Altenew has so many layering flower dies and I've mostly avoided going totally broke on them - but the Cosmos found their way into my stash.  I love their graceful shapes.  There are two different shaped flowers although it's a little hard to tell on my card since my layering covered up most of the difference. 

I hope to see you playing along with us at The Card Concept - I look forward to seeing how you are inspired!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Simply Stamped - Zinnias (stamp)

Dies: Altenew Craft a Flower: Cosmos Layering die

Other: Stampin' Up Brick & Mortar

Freshly Made Sketches: Lovely Birdies

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Narelle and here’s what I did with it!

 

I love those sweet little birdies from Catherine Pooler with the patterns on their chest and wings. When I saw there was a branch in the set, I knew they would work with the sketch!  The circle then turned into kind of a sun.  I knew I wanted something unique for the sentiment so I used The Ton's Easy Expressions which have unique shapes.

I hope to see you playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Catherine Pooler Lovely Birdies, The Ton Easy Expressions

Dies: Catherine Pooler Lovely Birdies, The Ton Easy Expressions, Stampin' Up Layering Circles Framelits dies, Reverse Confetti Along the Dotted Lines

Paper: Taylored Expressions Pineapple and Sprinkles, Doodlebug Designs Gingham-Linen Rainbow Petite Prints 6x6

Ink: Taylored Expressions Salt Water Taffy, Sprinkles, Granny Apple Green

Other: Pretty Pink Posh Starry Sky Jewels Mix

Color Throwdown and As You See It: Butterfly Birthday

 I just picked up Stampin' Up's Butterfly Beauty dies - they are retiring and on sale.  I don't know why I waited so long.  The main die that I'm using on this card is stunning and there are many, many other smaller butterflies.  It's a great set.

The colors at The Color Throwdown were definitely butterfly-ish!  Not so much the colors in their graphic, but they list the colors as red, orange, yellow and kraft so perfect for my classic butterfly. I brushed red ink, a few oranges and yellows in a circular pattern, then cut the background butterflies.  I topped it with white. I knew I was going to put it on kraft, but needed a little something extra.  I was looking for inspiration - browsing my stash and browsing various challenges. When I saw the sketch at As You See It, inspiration struck and I used an embossing folder to give me a border.  Thanks to both challenges for the inspiration!!

Because the butterfly was two layers, I thought it was sturdy enough to pop with dimensional adhesive around the edges and middle.  I like the way butterflies kind of float! The sentiment is popped with a bit thicker adhesive so lots of dimension on this card!

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Stampin' Up Four You (sentiment)

Dies: Stampin' Up Butterfly Beauty, The Greetery Sentiment Suite: Basics

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Mango Melody, Crumb Cake

Ink: Stampin' Up Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight

Other: Taylroed Expressions Garden Party Embossing Folder, Pretty Pink Posh Glossy Black gems

Freshly Made Sketches: Slimline Birthday

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Karren and here’s what I did with it! 

I do enjoy making slimlines.  It's a different thought process but its such a unique look when it's done. I settled pretty quickly on the sentiment die with a bright pattern behind it. The sentiment die is cut twice and the deep blue is offset slightly under the white to give it a shadow.

The rest of the card took me a bit longer. I tried for quite a while to add a second patterned paper for the bottom stripe. I gave up on that briefly while I figured out what to do to fill in the top part of the card.  I saw the balloons and the light bulb came on - they worked at the top and the bottom!

The kraft panel is cut with Trinity Stamps Slimline Modern Embossed Frame Panels.  That might be my most used slimline die and it's just a giant rectangle.  I love the finished edges.  I'm not sure a recipient would even notice but to me it's a clean and elegant finished look.  For some reason, I don't have the  same type of regular card-sized dies in my stash.  I'm going to have to go shopping!

I hope to see you playing along with us at Freshly Made Sketches. 

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Concord & 9th Perfect Pairings Birthday Dies, Tiny Type Tagalong dies (the balloon), Trinity Stamps Slimline Modern Embossed Frame Panels

Paper: Stampin' Up Artistry in Bloom, Crumb Cake, Night of Navy, Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana

Other: Miscellaneous Enamel dots

Poppystamps: A Newt Day

 I'm on the Poppystamps blog today using dies from their brand new release that includes 37 dies and 2 stamp sets (and gems!)  The release is called Whittle Wonders and includes so many new categories of whittles - including sealife and farm animals and even an avocado plus so much more!  I've used the Whittle Cactus, the Whittle Lizard (which I'm calling a Newt because I love that new sentiment), and the Whittle Sunshine.

There are more pictures and more details on the Poppystamps blog.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Poppystamps Whittle Wild Animal Sentiments

Dies: Poppystamps Whittle Cactus Trio, Lizard and Sunshine

Paper: Memory Box Cardstock in Lush Green, Sunny Orange, Fresh Aqua

Other: Memory Box Waves 3D Embossing Folder

Stampin' Up Copic Marker Matches

I have updated the Copic Color Match chart the new 2021-2023 In Colors from Stampin' Up.  Click the image to download or print the chart or on a desktop (or desktop view on mobile) it is always on the sidebar.  If you print it on the cardstock that you use for cards, you can color in the squares and have an easy reference each time you color an image!

All the newer greens including Mint Macaron in the main colors, Just Jade last year and this year's Soft Succulent have gotten very hard to match.  There is definitely not a single color that matches well and I don't even love the blended matches.  They are from a color family that Copic just doesn't do.  Personally, I'm going to be adding those Stampin' Blends to my collection.

I am not affiliated with Stampin' Up in any way.  I do these charts for my personal use.

Freshly Made Sketches: Celebrating You

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Cécile and here’s what I did with it!

I have two different posts up today and in both posts I had a problem with my cards and solved it the same way.  The problem - my idea for the card just didn't fit on a standard card front. In this case, I cut the rainbow of butterflies but they just got lost on a standard-sized card.  So I changed it to a mini-slim!  It's 3 1/2 by 6.  The slightly narrower card meant my butterflies didn't get lost.  I just had to fill in the vertical size so I picked a pretty floral and added borders!

I was thrilled to find a die in my stash with multiple different butterflies of the same approximate size.  Some of them had pierced detail so I was equally thrilled to find a banner for my sentiment with pierced.  So when I decided I needed something instead of plain white in the background - but it couldn't have much detail - lo and behold, I just got the Altenew Cross Stitch background which gave me the same pierced look.  It was a happy day!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: The Greetery Sentiment Suite Birthdays

Dies: Penny Black Flights of Fancy, Altenew Cross Stitch, The Greetery Sentiment Suites Basics 

The Card Concept: Brighter Days

There’s a new inspiration challenge at The Card Concept and the theme is Loads of Lavender.  Happily, I had a lavender stamp in my not-yet-used stash and here it is!

 

My Clean and Simple card was inspired by the lavender and also by the woodgrain, the gingham ribbon and the general classic country look.

I have two posts up today and both cards for the posts had the same issue.  The image I wanted to use just didn't quite fill a full card front.  So I solved it for both cards by creating a mini-slim.  It's 3 1/2 x 6 and the narrow front was just right size for the image and sentiment.  The extra length gave me the space to add some woodgrain and some stitched accents.

This sentiment just seemed right for right now.  The people that I've sent cards to for the last year are finally getting vaccinated and spending a bit more time outside of their homes.  It's definitely not all normal so I will keep sending cards - but there are definitely "brighter days ahead"!

I hope to see you playing along with us this week at The Card Concept.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Ink to Paper Brighter Days

Ink: Taylored Expressions Lavender Glaze, Stampin' Up Highland Heather and Mint Macaron

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Highland Heather

Dies: Ink to Paper Brighter Days, My Favorite Things Homespun Stitch Lines

Other: Stampin' Up Pinewood Planks Embossing Folder, Trinity Stamps Rainbow Reflection Rhinestone Mix

NOTE: Taylored Expressions carries envelopes for this size card

Poppystamps: Feline Good

In my area of the country, we recently had a record-setting blizzard - but then we had record-setting heat!  My indoor cats were thrilled with the open windows and ran from room to room watching birds and squirrels. They spent quite a bit of time at the front door watching the birds on the porch light until I realized I should shoo the birds away before they decided it was a good place for a nest (although my cats would have loved it!)

I was inspired by their antics and I'm up on the Poppystamps blog with full details and more pictures of the card that I created.

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Poppystamps Whittle Love

Dies: Poppystamps Grand Madison Window, Swaying Birch, Whittle Cat, Chirping Birds, Colwell Label Set, Fern and Daisy Pop Up Easel Set

Poppystamps: Sending Rainbows

Today I have a card on the Poppystamps blog. The current challenge at Poppystamps is Sending Rainbows and I was inspired to use a rainbow of colors along with the Poppystamps Lattice Plate.

 

This was a fun card to put together. I used strips of the new Memory Box cardstock that comes in three shades of every color to cut three or four squares of the rainbow colors. If you look closely you'll see that I used at least a couple of shades of each color.  Then I adhered the lattice to my card front and started piecing in the colorful squares! There are many more pictures and details of how this card came together on the Poppystamps blog. Check it out - then play along with rainbows!

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Poppystamps Lattice Plate, Luscious Script Hugs, Intricate Cut Butterflies

Paper: Memory Box cardstock collections in Ocean Blue (the lavender), Fresh Aqua, Lush Green, Sunny Orange (the orange and yellow), Berry Red; Memory Box Springtime Bouquet Stripes and Dots

Freshly Made Sketches: Butterflies and Rainbows

It's time for a new sketch at Freshly Made Sketches! Today we have a sketch by Jen Brum and here’s what I did with it!

 

I have a basket of not-yet-used dies, then I have all of my other dies in neatly organized binders on magnetic sheets, but then there's the messy pile of dies that I have used but not yet put into the organized binders. I decided to get that done this week.  It was amazing, partly because my craft room looks fresher and cleaner - but also because I saw many long forgotten dies that I just had to use.  Today's card uses a couple of those - the rainbow and the butterflies. 

I popped the middle strip of the rainbow with a double layer of foam tape, then the next two on a single layer.  Happily this gave me a fun way to do the sentiment - it's one of the pre-printed Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips and if fit just perfectly from the edge to the yellow stripe.

This was a fun card to make and I'm still sending cards and "smiles" to many people so it will definitely get used.  I hope to see you playing along with us this week at Freshly Made Sketches.

SUPPLY LIST

Dies: Papertrey Ink Rainbow Stripes, Memory Box Devyn Butterfly Trio

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Flirty Flamingo, Mango Melody, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Coastal Cabana

Other: Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips Thinking of You, various gems to match the rainbow

Christ is Risen!!

 Easter Blessings of Love and Hope

Colors from Hand Stamped Sentiments

SUPPLY LIST

Stamps: Simon Says Stamp Tiny Words Faith

Dies: Simon Says Stamp Outline Floral Cross, Studio Katia Easter Script die, Waffle Flower Lacy Stitch Layers

Cardstock: Stampin' Up Highland Heather, So Saffron, Pear Pizzazz, Gorgeous Grape

Other: Pretty Pink Posh Buttercream Gems