Birdy Background

Today's card has been almost a year-long in the works. 

When I got the Color Layering Birds and Blossoms prototype stamp set back in November, I knew right away I wanted to make a cute background with it. So I did just that, stamping my little birds on some pretty Simon Says Stamp Fog cardstock, and then...I just tucked the background away, never to see the light of day again until almost a year later!

My background was made by stamping the solid part of the bird in Soft Granite, and then stamping the second layer in Black. I stamped some hearts in Versamark, and heat embossed in Gold.

The last bit is pretty easy – just stamp and heat emboss the sentiment (from Color Layering Happy Day Flowers) in White, then die cut using the Heart Infinity dies. Adhere the sentiment to the card.

I trimmed the panel down to fit an A4 card, and that finished off the card!

How often does that happen with you? You start making a project, but then set it aside to finish at another time, and then you just forget? I've got a whole little box full of backgrounds and images all ready to be made into cards!

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Michaels white, Simon Says Stamp Fog cardstock

Stamps: Hero Arts Color Layering Birds and Blossoms and Color Layering Happy Day Flowers

Ink: Hero Arts Black and Soft Granite, Versamark

Other: Hero Arts White and Gold embossing powder

Tools: Cuttlebug, Hero Arts Heart Infinity dies, heat gun

Hero Arts and Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember Release

Today Simon Says Stamp and Hero Arts are releasing a special stamp set for STAMPtember! The new set, Happy Thanksgiving, is a cut and die combo set.

I just used the stamp set for today's card, and kept things simple.

I stamped the sentiment in Cup O'Joe, and built the scene around that.

I stamped the images in Copper and Gold Brilliance ink, and they give such a nice shine! Because these are such rich pigment inks, you either need to heat set the images once stamped, wait for them to dry (at least a day, I would say), or heat emboss it in clear (or sparkle!) powder.

See, isn't that shine so pretty?

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Hero Arts and Simon Says Stamp Happy Thanksgiving
Ink: Hero Arts Cup O'Joe and Brilliance ink
Other: gems (Hero Arts)

Shrinkable Jar // Hero Arts

Happy Friday!
Today's card features some stamp stretching techniques, using the cute Hero Arts Mason Jar Bugs stamp set.

The jar was a little too big to my purposes, so I partially inked up the top of my stamp with Versamark and stamped the jar on my cardstock, added my white embossing powder, and heat embossed it.
Then, after cleaning my stamp, I patted my image with my anti-static powder tool to make sure that the stamp was completely dry. I then inked up the bottom half, lined it up with the partially embossed jar, and stamped. Once I added the embossing powder, I was able to gently brush off any embossing powder that tried sticking in the wrong place.

I stamped flowers from the You're So Lovely stamp set in Navy, Pool and Soft Pool, to create a nice bouquet coming out of the jar (I like to put flowers in jars ;)). I also die cut some of the leaves out of vellum to fill in the bouquet and add a nice soft color.
The sentiment is from the You're So Lovely stamp set as well, stamped on a die cut vellum label, made using the Kelly's Label Stamp and Cut stamp set.

Once I had adhere my different elements to a white panel with some sequins, I adhered it to a card base stamped with Woodgrain Bold Prints by Lia in Soft Granite.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Simon Says Stamp Fog
Stamps: Hero Arts You're So Lovely, Woodgrain Bold Prints by Lia and Kelly's Label Stamp and Cut
Ink: Versamark, Hero Arts Navy, Soft Pool, Pool, and Soft Granite
Other: clear sequins (Simon Says Stamp), string and vellum (stash), Hero Arts white embossing powder

Tools: Cuttlebug, Hero Arts You're So Lovely dies and Kelly's Label Stamp and Cut die, embossing gun

Crazy Pigs // Paper Source

I thought I'd break the monotony of this blog (and my studying for midterms) with some random cards for this weeks Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes);

My brother got me THIS Paper Source stamp a while back, and I decided to have it do some crazy things...

First, through space! I thought the sentiment would be cheeky and perfect to send to a friend.

This one I struggled with more - I haven't used this much patterned paper in forEVER!

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson
Patterned paper: Crate Paper
Stamps: Paper Source Pig, Simon Says Stamp Sending and Wishing and Mama Elephant True Friend and Up and Away
Ink: Tim Holtz, Versamark, Versafine
Other: string, embossing powder (Hero Arts)

Tools: Fiskars cloud punches, sewing machine, Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp Wishing die

Masculine and Feminine Valentine Cards // Hero Arts

Hi, today I'm here to share two cards that happened while I was playing around with ideas for THIS blog post. They didn't make the cut for the Hero Arts blog, but I still wanted to share them.

This is obviously the more feminine of the two - I'm planning on giving this one to my mom.
I added some ink splatters for a little extra oomph.

For both cards, I stamped the sentiment on a piece of masking paper, and then cut around it to create a mask for when I stamped my arrows and added the ink splatters.

This is a more masculine card, which could be even more "manly" if the pearls were removed. I just might do that before I give this to my dad.

For this second card, I only used two ink pads - the grey ink, and then a Hero Arts ombre ink pad. I really love these ink pads, because you can use them for the ombre effect, or you can use them to stamp individual colors, since the ink pad is made up of three separate ink colors.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Hero Arts Snow Layering Papers
Stamps: Hero Arts Love You Message and Love by Lia
Ink: Hero Arts Soft Yellow, Soft Apricot, Fresh Peach, Tide Pool to Navy Ombre, and Charcoal
Other: Hero Arts Sunshine and Pool Mixed Accents

Tools: paintbrush, water, Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp mini hearts dies

Thoughts and Prayers + GIVEAWAY // Hero Arts

Here's another little break from all the Christmas cards, inspired by THIS pin.

The background was made using an older Hero Arts and Basic Grey collaboration stamp set - I stamped and embossed the sentiment all over the background (doing a wee bit of masking), and then went in with some watercolors.
I used the STAMPtember Simon Says Stamp and Hero Arts collab stamp and die set, Prayers, to create the sentiment. I layered two pieces of vellum behind the sentiment, to make sure it stood out from the hectic background, but still allowed the background to shine.
A few gems top off the card!

Now, for a Christmas giveaway, to pass on some stamps and dies to a more loving home ;)

This includes some new and very gently used (only one die) products;

• Animal Blessings and their coordinating dies (which haven't been used, I simply pulled them out of the package and then later put then back in)
• Paper Layering Snowflake, Tree and Ornament
• Star Snowflake stencil

To enter, simply leave a comment on this post! If you're a follower, then I'll add your name into the hat a second time. ;)
This giveaway ends 12/27, midnight EST.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and enjoy your weekend!!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Hero Arts Prayers and Pattern Hearts and Flowers
Ink: Versamark, watercolors
Other: vellum, gems (Hero Arts), embossing powder (Hampton)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Hero Arts Prayers die, heat gun

Inlaid Die Cutting // Simon Says Stamp STAMPtember and Hero Arts exclusive

I'm stopping in with a video and two cards today showcasing a beautiful stamp collaboration between Hero Arts and Simon Says Stamp.

Gah, while this card was so fun to make, it was the darnedest thing to photograph.

But for reals, terrible photographs aside, isn't this stamp/die set just gorgeous?!

Here's a video to show you how I made my card (and how I fixed a little boo-boo)

As I mention in the video, this second card was actually my first test run, but I wasn't crazy about the stamping at first.
At first.
Then I decided I didn't want to waste it, so I worked it out eventually...

I used two cute mini stamp sets by Lia for Hero Arts to do the leaves on both cards - Elves and Build a Wreath. Great bang for your buck in these little mini sets from Lia.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

SUPPLIES

Cardstock: Bazzill Walnut Cream, Hero Arts Floral Layering paper, Michaels
Stamps: Hero Arts & Simon Says Stamp Prayers, Hero Arts Elves by Lia, Build a Wreath by Lia and Color Layering Christmas Tree
Ink: Versamark, Hero Arts Charcoal, Dark Quartz and Passion Flower
Other: embossing powder (Hero Arts)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Lawn Fawn Border die, Simon Says Stamp hearts dies, Hero Arts and Simon Says Stamp Prayers die

Masculine cards // Simon Says Stamp

Popping in today with a masculine card to spice things up here!

The cute little dog from Simon Says Stamp You Are Pawesome stamp set is the star of this little boy birthday card, made for last Wednesday's Simon Says Stamp challenge (masculine).

There was a bit of customizing the stamps for this card. First, I added the spots to the card using a black Memento marker, then colored them in with a brown one.
The Sending and Wishing stamp set comes with a lot of sentiments, but nothing quite what I wanted. So I did a little simple masking and used the "birthday" from "you happy birthday" and added it to "hug" from "you love & hugs". Oila, the perfect sentiment!
I also left some of the negative die cuts in the sentiment so that the "sending" stood out enough between the dog and the patterned paper's competition.

Before I sign off, another quick pitch for a free blog design - deets HERE!

Thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Papertrey Ink April Blog Hop challenge

Hello everyon! Before my day starts to get really crazy, I just wanted to stop in with a card for this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop challenge.

I love navy and pink together, so this challenge was super fun for me...

I was inspired by a card I saw a couple weeks back - I can't remember where right now, but if I do, I'll link to it.
UPDATE: I found the card - HERE it is.
The card had a couple buildings, and the tops of some of those buildings cut, so it's pretty obvious where my inspiration came from. ;)

I'm considering doing another version of this card, with different colors and more watercolorey.

I didn't use the second step stamp on all of the buidlings from City Scene, just to give it a retro vibe.

That's it for me today - thanks so much for stopping in and enjoy the hop!

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Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Papertrey Ink "City Scene", Simon Says Stamp "Sending and Wishing"
Ink: Tim Holz, Studio Calico

Tools: Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp "Wishing" die

Lawn Fawn // Hello Baby

Another scrappy card! I tell ya, I'm on a roll! Today's card uses some leftover die cut flowers from THIS card.

I'm playing along in the Simon Says Stamp and Lawn Fawn Flickr Co-challenge that my sweet friend Barb is co-administrating. Just use some kraft paper/ink and Lawn Fawn and/or Simon Says Stamp product!

I used the Lawn Fawn Hello Baby (the images are SO cute!) and Simon Says Stamp Inside and Out Sayings (one of my favorite sentiment stamps sets) sets for my card, as well as the SSS Mini Hearts die...

Momma bunny accidentally got some blush on her nose, so pay no heed to that. ;)

Thanks so much for stopping in today and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Patterned paper: DCWV, Crate Paper (both retired collections)
Stamps: Lawn Fawn "Hello Baby", Simon Says Stamp "Inside and Out Sayings", WPlus9 "Fresh Cut Florals"
Ink: Versamagic, Stazon, Tim Holtz

Tools: Cuttlebug, circle die, WPlus9 Fresh Cut Florals die, Lawn Fawn Hello Baby dies, Simon Says Stamp Mini Hearts die

Smile

...it's 2015! I typically do a post with my favorite cards from the past year, but if I get caught up in the time-consuming task of being a bum this Christmas break, don't be surprised. ;)

I wanted to test out the Hero Arts SMILE background stamp, but I used an old Staz-on ink pad, getting a rather uneven impression. I decided to roll with it, and go watercolor, because we all know it's quite fashionable to be messy, if you do it in watercolor. ;)

Just because I like to keep adding tiny, minuscule little details to my cards until my brain hurts - little bits of Stickles on the stamped hearts.

Finished off with some vellum, die cut hearts, and a rather obvious sentiment. ;)

Hope you have a happy new year, for the WHOLE year!

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamps: Hero Arts
Ink: Versamark, Stazon
Other: embossing powder, vellum, stickles

Tools: Cuttlebug, heat gun, My Favorite Things dies, Papertrey Ink die, Simon Says Stamp die

hello

....AMURICA!! I am (finally!) back in the good ol' U.S. of A!

Plot twist: this isn't actually a Valentine's Day card. I didn't even realize how Valentiney this looked till now...about a half year later from making it.

The Wink of Stella makes up for any faults though (darn, I love that stuff)

God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Hero Arts "Typewriter Notes"
Ink: Studio Calico
Patterned paper: Dear Lizzy "Lucky Charm"
Other: Wink of Stella, vellum

Tools: Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp heats die

Purple Struggle

I'm over at the Pinkfresh blog today, and people, things get pretty real there.

Here's the thing.

I have a problem.
A problem with purple.

I don't know, but I just struggle with that color.
In my home, in my wardrobe, and even in my card room.

But one day, I decided to change the fates and face my fear.

And, armed with some gorgeous Pinkfresh goodies, it actually wasn't too hard.

For this card, I used the glitter washi tape (MMM! I just love me some glitter!) on the wood veneer chevrons. I love how the wood veneer comes in such great, basic shapes, so if the times call for it, you can easily customize them to suit your purposes.

Again, some more glitter tape, and then some yumlicious enamel hearts to top it off. For the sentiment, I first placed the washi tape on scrap paper, and stamped using Staz-on ink, Then I stamped Versafine for the card base, removed the washi tape from the scrap paper, and placed it over the sentiment on the card base. I just found that the Staz-on ink stood out a little better on the glitter tape, and but I liked how Versafine stamped on the cardstock, so I used both.

So, take that, purple!

Current score;
Clare: 3, Purple: 176

Oh yeah. 

Oh Ship!

If you didn't notice, I'm changing up the look of the blog (again).
I wasn't quite satisfied with the way the last template I used was preforming (I personally dislike "read more" blog posts), so I decided to throw it out.
I also wanted to try out my web design skills, so what sad mess you see here is actually hours of me struggling with Illustrator (which I've never used before), Photoshop, Blogger, and mostly, my own super slow and annoying laptop.
Hopefully the design, while simple, is decent enough to last me for a good while - at least until I actually learn how to use programs better. ;)

The card today is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes - I forgot to link up with the friends challenge, so I hope it's okay I'm linking up to this challenge) and the Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (I ought to use this more - my patterned paper!)

This Naughty Nautical stamp set is hilarious - perfect for masculine cards, and fun too!

Some pretty Maggie Holmes paper made the ombre "waves" easy, sewed a border, and then topped it off with the simply stamped image.

Thanks so much for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Canson
Patterned paper: Maggie Holmes "Flea Market"
Stamps: Simon Says Stamp "Naughty Nauticals"
Ink: Stazon

Tools: sewing machine, scalloped scissors

Some pointy arrows

Just popping in with a new card featuring some pointy wood veneer arrows - I honestly couldn't think of a better blog post title.

This card is for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (friends) and the Monday challenge (anything goes)

Using the Inside and Out Sayings stamp set - I love all the cheeky accompaniments to the main sentiment, such as the one for this one; "okay, I can, but it would be super boring."
A lot of sentiment stamps look really nice, but some of them seem pretty redundant, so I feel kinda silly giving out the cards with them on it.
Which is why I'm hoping Simon Says Stamp will come out with a second Inside and Out stamp set. *cough cough* ;)

These arrows were inked up in Versamagic and Brilliance inks, then heat embossed with some clear embossing powder to make sure that the ink didn't rub off.

Thanks so much for stopping in today and have a great weekend!

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Cardstock: Canson, Bazzill
Stamp: Simon Says Stamp "Inside and Out Sayings"
Ink: Brilliance, Versamagic, Versamark
Other: embossing powder (Hampton Art and Martha Stewart), gems (Michaels), wood veneer (Studio Calico)

Tool: heat gun

You are amazing!

It's my best friend's birthday, and while this card's randomness and colors are definitely not her type, I think the sentiment inside makes up for it. :)

I seriously love THIS set from Simon Says Stamp - so perfect! I'd love it if they came out with a similar set. ;)

This is for the Lawnscaping challenge...

Anyways, my friend's sisters are actually driving up to surprise her tonight (good thing she doesn't read this blog ;)) and I've gotta catch up on some school before then, so thanks for stopping in and God bless!

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Cardstock: Strathamore
Stamps: Lawn Fawn "Gnome Sweet Gnome", Simon Says Stamp "Inside and Out Sayings"
Ink: Strathamore, Memento
Other: kraft tag (Maya Road), wood veneer (Studio Calico)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Lawn Fawn Gnome Sweet Gnome dies

Quickly popping in

...to share a card for the Birthday Sketch Challenge in the Moxie Fab World, and the Pretty Pink Posh #22 challenge (it took me 9 min. 26 sec for this one)

Not the best photo, I know, but I really am in a rush - however, I'll be back in a couple days for a week long Moxie Fab World extravaganza inspired by my friend Maureen.

In case you're wondering why the hearts look a little funny, it's because I die cut the hearts from the base, and added some glitter tape inside the card.
Speaking of the inside of the card, I love this sentiment...

Pretty much the reason I got THIS fun Simon Says Stamp set. ;)

Thanks for stopping in and have an awesome weekend!

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Cardstock: Canson
Stamps: Hero Arts "Clocks", Simon Says Stamp "Inside and Out Sayings"
Ink: Stazon, Tim Holtz
Other: glitter tape (American Crafts)

Tools: Cuttlebug, Simon Says Stamp Mini Hearts dies