Birch Press Design May Blog Post #1

Hello, hello!  Popping in to let you know that I have a blog post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of what I created. 

I hope you will head over to the blog to check out what I created.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Birch Press Design March Post #1

 Hello, hello!  Hope your March is going well.  Ours has been a little up and down.  Sunny and warm one day, cold and rainy the next!   I'm just glad that we seem to have dodged snow where I live!  I'm popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of what I created.

I hope you will head over to the blog to check out this spring inspired design!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Birch Press Design Post

 Hello, hello!  Can't believe that August is almost half over!  Time sure is flying by.  I'm stopping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of what I created.

I hope you will head over to the blog to check out what I made.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Ocean Wonders...

 Hello, hello!  I'm popping in to share two cards that I made using the FABULOUS new Birch Press Design release!   This release is huge and while I do two monthly posts on the Birch Press Design blog (one coming on Wednesday July 9th) I will be sharing lots more here on my blog.  Let's take a look at what I made.

This first card using the new Block Print Deep Sea Fish set of dies.  Isn't that a cool fish?  Honestly, the whole release just makes me think of Finding Nemo!  I have so many ideas, lol!  I used the colors from Color Throwdown for my little scene.  I inked up sections of white cardstock with distress oxide inks in carved pumpkin, seedless preserves and frayed burlap.  I let them dry a bit and then die cut all my pieces.  Using the ink left on the blending brushes I added different colors to each of the pieces.  I love how the fish turned out.  The layout is from Sunday Stamps.  I will admit that I took a bit of license with the sketch.  I thought the top and bottom fins added those two additional elements on the sketch.  The kelp was die cut from a scrap of white cardstock and then inked up with the seedless preserves and carved pumpkin.  I added everything to a white cardstock base and then remembered I needed a sentiment.  Thankfully it stamped correctly, lol!  I used one from the Birch Press Design stamp set called Classic Sentimental Wreath.   Three clear sequins in three sizes were the finishing touch.

On to my second card.  This one is for the Paper Players to use circles.  Let's have a look.

I absolutely love the new Block Print Floating Jellyfish!  This card came about because I just wanted to figure out how the jelly comes together.  I die cut it from a dark blue cardstock and then worked out the layering.  I put the piece aside and worked on the first card.  After I finished the first card I really started looking at the blue jelly and realized I could make a card with it.  I added some ink to parts of the jelly.  The bottom legs of the fish were inked up with seedless preserves.  The middle layer was kind of left alone and then I really darkened up the top layer.  I die cut a circle from light blue and then added some ink to the circle as well.  The kelp was die cut from a bright green cardstock and then inked up with green and teal inks.  I used oxide inks and basically used what ink remained on the blender brushes to add the color.   The sentiment is one I hot foiled months ago using the Birch Press Sugar Scripts Sentiments 2 set.  I layered the kelp on the circle and then added the jelly.

In this close up you can see some of the ink blending a little better.  I added the circle to a white cardstock base.  Adhered the sentiment and then added all the little sequin "bubbles".  The sequins are a silvery blue.   I decided to add the panel to a bright green cardstock base and love how it makes the jelly really pop.   

Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

wishing you a beautiful day...

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Altenew monthly challenge, Just Us Girls - Stencils and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.   Let's have a look at what I made.

I went back and forth as to whether or not I would try to make something for the Altenew challenge as I wasn't really feeling the colors.  Don't get me wrong, I do like the combo of orange, green and kraft, but nothing was inspiring me.  I was going through my Altenew products and came across the Daisy Craze stencil set.  I decided to challenge myself to see if I would make that combo work and I think I was able to make it work!  I used Pinkfresh Studio inks in the kraft and orange and Altenew's Forest Glade ink for the green.  I used two shades of orange to give the flowers a bit of variation.  I used a sentiment from the Altenew Craft Your Life Watercolor Flowers stamp and die set.   I added the bit of twine around the card so the sentiment wouldn't look so lonely, lol!   Let me know what you think.

Well, that's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Easter Wishes...

 Hello!  Happy last day of February!  Look at me... posting three times in the last two days!  What is going on???   Guess the crafting bug got ahold of me, lol.  Today I have a very simple design that I'm sending off to the Sunday Stamps challenge (closes in mere hours, yikes!), Freshly Made Sketches and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  Let's have a look.

The Sunday Stamps challenge features a gorgeous color palette designed to get us thinking spring!  The more I looked at the colors the more I wanted to create something that reminded me of the forsythia that grew beside the front porch of the house I grew up in.   It wasn't until I was older that I learned the name of those flowers, but I always loved seeing the bright yellow blooms that started appearing in the spring.  I thought the Birch Press Design Budding Twigs Contour Layers die set was perfect to create my budding forsythia.  There are two sizes in the die set and I went with the smaller of the two.  I used my favorite yellow cardstock (Lemon Tart from PTI) and my favorite dark brown cardstock (Dark Chocolate from PTI) to die cut my pieces.  There are three layers to each twig.  Two of the layers create the little buds.  I left the top bud layer the Lemon Tart color and the bottom layer was inked up with a dark yellow ink to create the contrast.  The pieces were adhered together and set aside to dry.   For the background I blended Speckled Egg distress oxide ink onto white heavy stock cardstock.  Heavy stock is super smooth and perfect for blending.  I arranged the twigs per the FMS sketch and then stamped the sentiments (from the new SSS Bunny Blessings stamp set).   Thought about adding something else, but decided I really liked the simplicity of the design.

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

sweet wishes release...

 Hello, hello!  Did you see?  Simon Says Stamp has a brand new release called Sweet Wishes.  You can find the complete collection of products right here.  Simon Says Stamp generously sent me the beautiful Sketched Leaves stamp set and I created two projects with the set.   I went full on autumn colors mode for both projects.  Let's have a look at the first one.

For the card I started off by stamping the maple leaf on watercolor paper with VersaMark watermark ink, applying gold embossing powder and then heat setting it.  I then used my Tonic Studio Aqua Flow pens in autumn shades of red, yellow and brown for the background.  Once the piece was dry, I die cut it with a rectangle die and then sprayed it with distress mica sprays in Harvest Moon, Mulled Cider and Fallen Acorn.  I roughed up the edges for a more rustic look.  I embossed the sentiment in gold on vellum, trimmed it down and tore one edge.  I wrapped the other edge around the back of my panel, secured it with glue dots and tied the bow.  The panel was then adhered to an off-white cardstock base.  Adding this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge to add texture.  

I really had alot of fun creating my next project.  Let's have a look at it. 

When I first saw the stamp set I knew that I wanted to create a decor type piece with it.  I went with a tag design using a Stampers Anonymous #8 thick board tag with a distress #8 heavy stock tag on top.  For this piece I used distress oxide inks in Carved Pumpkin, Fossilized Amber, Bundled Sage and Gathered Twigs.  I blended on the inks to my liking and then splattered the tag with water.  I let the tag dry for a bit and then stamped on the three leaves using VersaFine CLAIR Acorn ink.  I finished the tag with lots of splatters foundry wax in the color Gilded.  I heat set the splatters to give them shine and make them permanent.  The edges of the tag were also roughed up for a more rustic look.   You don't see it in the photo, but I used some Tim Holtz washi tape to cover the sides of the thickboard tag for a more finished look.  Then I adhered the inkblended tag using Multi Matte Medium and let it dry.  

For the leaves I used the same oxide inks on a piece of cream colored heavy stock cardstock.   Once I had the inkblending done I stamped each leaf using the Acorn ink and then trimmed out each leaf.  There are matching dies that you can find right here, but I don't have them (yet!).  Since the leaves are fairly large, trimming them out was pretty quick and easy!   I also splattered the leaves with lots of the Gilded foundry wax.  The edges were roughed up and then I glued each leaf on top of the image stamped on the tag by adding glue down the center of each one.   To finish I stamped the sentiment in VersaMark watermark ink, applied gold embossing powder and heat set.  The sentiment was then die cut with a cute little fancy shaped tag from Simon Says Stamp.  The edges roughed up and it was adhered to the tag.  I also added a little bit of inking to the edges of the leaves before gluing them on.  Some Memory Box fairy drops in autumn shades were added, along with the ribbon bow.  I custom colored the ribbon using the mica sprays in Harvest Moon and Mulled Cider.  I really love how this tag turned out!

The challenge at Just Us Girls is to create a project based on the word leaves.  My tag fits the challenge perfectly so I will be posting it there.   Love it when things work out like that!

That's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Birch Press Design

 Hello, hello!  I'm popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little look at my card.

I hope you will head over to the blog to see the entire card.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

thank you kindly...

 Hello!  I made a card and now I'm sharing it, lol!  This is for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Hues.  The Color Hues combo is lilac and mint two colors that I don't often put together, but I challenged myself to give it a try.   Here's what I made.

I used Shaded Lilac and Salvaged Patina distress oxides and ink blended the Memory Box Cottage Flower Stem.    I used Waffle Flower Crafts 1+ blender brushes and tried to add some shading.  You can see a little bit of it on the leaves, but my Shaded Lilac pad was really juicy and despite adding several layers of color to the center of the flower, there isn't much difference.  Oh well, I tried!  I did use a little bit of Antique Linen for the flower center.  I have several Memory Box patterned paper pads and I found these neutral plaid that has a bit of minty color to it.  I used that along with strips of light gray and white cardstocks that I embossed with my old favorite Sizzix Swiss Dot embossing folder.  The sentiment is a new product from Memory Box/Open Studio called Greetings Tabs.   The tabs come in black and white, circle or strip and feature either thank you sentiments or birthday sentiments.   Perfect for when you just need to add a quick sentiment to a card.  

Since I did do some ink blending I'm also going to add this to the Memory Box February challenge of ink blending.   I'm also going to add this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. 

That's it for me!  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

red magnolia...

 Hello and happy Friday!  I'm back to share a card that I made for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.   The color combo at CTD is red, kraft and white.  I challenged myself to use the colors in a sort of unconventional way and I really like the outcome.  Take a look. 

I just love the Magnolia  Blooming Bud die from Memory Box and as I was casting about for ideas as to how to use the CTD colors I thought it would be interesting and a little unconventional to color my magnolia blossom red and the leaves kraft color.  I die cut all the pieces from white cardstock and then used Waffle Flowers 1+ blender brushes to add the colors to the pieces.  I used Lumberjack Plaid for the magnolia blossom and Tea Dye for the leaves.  I did use Gathered Twigs for the stem to provide a little contrast to the leaves.   I used Memory Box white woodgrain cardstock for the main panel and the oval.  Memory Box kraft woodgrain cardstock was a very close match to my ink blended leaves so I used that for the stripe element.   To make the stripe stand out more I ran a line of glue along each side and then added the red twine as it closely matched the ink blended magnolia.   I finished with a little sentiment from the Memory Box/Simon Says Stamp Stamptember collaboration set called Kind Flowers.   I added dimension to the flower and leaves by popping up certain parts with different thicknesses of foam squares.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

little bird...

 Hello!  Hope you are warm where you live.   It is just a little too cold here in Western Washington (although not as cold as Iowa!) for me.  We have temperatures in the mid-teens right now.  Thankfully it is supposed to start warming back up in the next day or so.  I guess we are being punished for our crazy warm December, lol!  Anyway, to keep warm I made a card for the Freshly Made Sketches challenge and it works for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of cute critters.  I think my little bird is super cute!

I did some direct to paper inking to create the colors I wanted for the little twigs my bird is perched on.  The twigs die set is the Budding Twigs Contour Layers from Birch Press Design and the bird is called Perched Reed Bird from Memory Box (I don't think it is still available from MB, though).  It is one of my favorite dies!  I used a grey/brown ink from Hero Arts for the branch portion of each twig and then Spun Sugar and Picked Raspberry distress inks for the other layers.  I used my Waffle Flower Shader 0+ blending brushes to add the red and brown inks to my little bird.  I used Pinkfresh Studio inks for the bird.   I layed out where I wanted the twigs per the FMS layout and then added a little bit of blue/gray ink to the background.  This time I used a very old MFT ink that I have.    I adhered one twig to my panel then laid the rest of the twigs on the panel to get sentiment placement.  I stamped the happy sentiment directly on the panel.  The rest of the twigs and bird were added.  I finished with the stamped and die cut sentiment.  The sentiment comes from a Simon Says Stamp set called Garden Fresh.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Happy Christmas...

 Hello!  I'm back with a clean and simple little card for the current Color Throwdown challenge.  Haven't played along with that challenge in weeks.  The colors for the current challenge really pulled at me so I had to make something.  A few new products from Simon Says Stamp arrived in my mailbox this week and one of them was the Wonky Tree-O die set.  I just had to use the dies for my card.  My card works for the JUGs challenge so I will be adding to their gallery.   I used two of the colors (pink and green) and my card features trees.

I diecut the trees from white cardstock and inkblended on Pumice Stones, Spun Sugar and Evergreen Bough distress oxide inks.  I die cut the little tree stands from kraft.  I used a very old Memory Box die to create my little snowy background, die cut the bottom with the same Memory Box die I used to die cut the woodgrain cardstock and adhered the two together.   The trees were added and then I decided that I wanted to add a little Rock Candy glitter.  So I dapped on some distress collage medium and then poured on the glitter.  I added some Snowfall grit paste around the bottom of the trees and to the sentiment for an extra little touch.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

smile...

 Hello!  Popping in with a quick share of a card that I made for Sunday Stamps.  I just love the color palette for the current challenge and wanted to make something.  The Simon Says Stamp Sunrise Stem has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to make something with it and this is what I came up with.  

I used my Waffle Flower grip mat to hold my pieces in place after I die cut them from white cardstock.  The flower was inked up with Pinkfresh Studio Slumber, the stem with Pinkfresh Studio Fresh Pear and Grassy Knoll and the flower center with Pinkfresh Studio Lemon Whip.  I used Pinkfresh Studio Blue Jay for my ink blended background.  The sentiment is an older Simon Says Stamp die.  I have had it for so long that I don't even remember if I have ever used it.  I die cut it twice from heavy weight vellum and then adhered them together.  I arranged everything on the background using liquid adhesive.  I finished off the card with yellowish gems.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

Bold Butterfly - Birch Press Design

 Happy Friday friends!  I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek:

I hope you will head over to the Birch Press Design blog to take a look at what I made.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

you are my sunshine...

 Hello!  Is the sun shining where you live?  It is partly sunny here.  I could have said partly cloudy, but I want to be an optimist, lol!   About a week ago I was digging through my collection of products looking for something and came across my long neglected Blue Skies suite of products from PaperTrey Ink.  Instead of putting them back I kept them out because I really wanted to make something with them.  Thankfully the current JUGs challenge came along because I now have used the products sooner rather than later!   Take a look at what I made.

Recently my friend, Greta, asked if I wanted to share in an order from Simon Says Stamp.  She lives in Oregon and I live in Washington, but I said yes, because she would be placing the order and Oregon has no sales tax!   Plus, I think she had a free shipping code and so I would only have to pay for her to mail the products to me from Oregon.  A win-win in my book.  As part of the order we split a package of Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Velvet Luxury cardstock in snow white.  I had used a tiny amount of one sheet, but when I saw the Blue Skies cover plate that creates a cloud filled background I knew I had to use the velvet cardstock.   The cover plate creates a lot of embossing so I was a little worried that the embossing wouldn't show up on the thinner velvet cardstock, but it turned out amazing!   I didn't want the entire piece to be white so I took a small scrap to see how it would take ink.  As you can see it work pretty darn well!   I used distress ink in Broken China for the inking.  I die cut the sun rays from white cardstock and then ink blended on Squeezed Lemonade and Scattered Straw distress inks.   Things were moving along smoothly until I decided to add foam squares to the back of my cloud/sun panel.  I hadn't stamped the sentiment that you see on one of the rays.  Thankfully everything stamped perfectly!  I finished with a scattering of sparkling clear sequins.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

a rainbow and flowers...

 Hello!  Hope all is well in your world.  It has been pretty cold here in the PNW (Pacific Northwest), but thankfully little to no snow!  Hoping it stays that way.  I'm popping in with two cards today.  I'm very proud of myself for making two cards because lately I have not felt like making even one card.    Sometimes I think I suffer from "too much stuff syndrome" (I made that up!).   Because I have too much stuff I get a little paralyzed and can't decide what to do.  Do you suffer from this same syndrome?  Let me know!  Here is my first card for Sunday Stamps:

Birch Press Designs has a new release out and it is full of beautiful floral die sets including the Sprouting Crocus Contour Layers die set.  I love seeing Crocus flowers sprouting up during the early spring, don't you?   I die cut the flowers and the stems from white cardstock and then inked them up with distress oxide ink in Mowed Lawn and Prize Ribbon.  I then assembled the flowers per the little assembly sheet that comes with the dies.  I set them aside to dry and worked on my sentiment.  I inked up some white cardstock with Bundled Sage distress oxide and then positioned the Big Thanks Sugar Script die so that the inking was darkest at the bottom and die cut the word.  I die cut two additional words and adhered them to the inked one for more stability.  There is a shadow die for the work, but I decided not to use it for my card.   For the background I placed one of the flowers along with the word on a panel of white cardstock to determine where I was going to blend on some Speckled Egg distress oxide.  Once I had that figured out I inked up the background and then adhered all the elements.  I decided to add a sub-sentiment to the card.  The sentiment is from Reverse Confetti and was stamped in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I finished with a scattering of Memory Box Fairy Drops.  I think I captured several of the colors in the palette fairly well.  

The next card is for Color Throwdown:

The colors for this week's Color Throwdown had me thinking "rainbow" and so I pulled out the fun Stampin Up! Rainbow of Happiness bundle and did a little stamping.  I used Pinkfresh Studio and Simon Says Stamp inks for the rainbow.  The pink and blue inks are from Pinkfresh Studio and the yellow and aqua inks are from Simon Says Stamp.  I die cut the little clouds from Simon Says Stamp velvet luxury cardstock in snow white.  I layered those on with liquid adhesive and foam squares after I stamped the sentiment in VersaFine Clair Nocturne ink.  I added the little blue hearts and some crystal clear sequins.   I will add this one to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge of anything goes.

happy thanksgiving...

 Hello everyone!  Hope things are well in your world.  I'm popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches, the Paper Players and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge.  I had started working on the card on Saturday but decide to wait to finish it to see if what I had started might work for the Paper Players challenge and it did!  Let's take a look. 

I bought the Simon Says Stamp Pumpkin Set quite a while ago, but never got the chance to make anything with it.  When I saw the FMS sketch, I thought it would be perfect for the circular element on the card.  I didn't make my card square, but I don't often make square cards to begin with, lol!  I used a Spellbinders embossing folder called Falling Leaves to emboss the kraft cardstock and then cut it apart to create the two other elements.    The pumpkin, stem and leaves were die cut from bristol cardstock and then I inked up the pumpkin with Dried Marigold, Spiced Marmalade and Rusty Hinge distress oxide inks.  The leaves were inked with Bundled Sage and Rustic Wilderness.   I used different levels of foam squares to create a bit of a curve to the pumpkin, but not sure I succeeded.  The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Full of Thanks stamp set.  I stamped the sentiment with green ink and then die cut it with an AJVD label die.  I purchased the SSS November card kit and was set to get it on Oct. 29th.  The mail came but the kit was delivered to me.  According to the tracking info the delivery person delivered it to the wrong address where it was refused.  So, I thought it was going back to Simon Says Stamp.  However, on Monday we had a different delivery person, and I got my kit!   So glad it came, and I was able to use a sentiment from the set.

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!

just for you...

 Hello!  Popping in to share a card that I made for Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.   I have been working on other projects but wanted to take a little time to make "just for fun" card.   The colors at CTD are orange, green and white and the sketch at FMS features three of something and a sentiment.  Since it is fall and the leaves on the trees are changing color my thoughts turned to a die set that I recently purchased from Poppystamps called Fanciful Fall Leaves.   The last time I used the set I had some leave leftover and as luck would have it, they worked perfectly for CTD as well as the Color Hues challenge!  Here is my card.

As you can see the card is very simple.  Just the leaves, the sentiment and a little white twine.  True story as I was making the card, I was so intent on arranging the leaves that I forgot to die cut the white cardstock first.  I didn't realize what I had done until I had the first one glued down!   So, I had to go "old school" and trim my panel down with my paper trimmer!   Added the other leaves and the sentiment from a Reverse Confetti stamp set called Poppies. 

Anywhoo... thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day.  Our fall weather finally decided to show up here in the Pacific Northwest.  We had been having unseasonably warm weather and no rain.  Lots of wildfires left us with bad air quality.   Rain and colder temps have finally arrived, sort of.  But that is the PNW for you!  

wishing you sunshine...

Hello!  Popping in with a rainbow inspired card for a couple of challenges:  the Paper Players and Fab Friday.  The were no rainbows today in my part of the world even though there was a lot of rain!  But, that didn't stop me from creating this fun rainbow card!  I had made a card the other day and decided to use a stencil on it.  I went through all my stencils and found some rainbow themed stencils from PaperTrey Ink's Make it Market mini kits.  I paired a stencil with a heart in the center and the rays coming out from it with a stamp and die from the mini kit.   I started my card by masking off the rays on the stencil and inking up the heart with Candied Apple distress oxide ink.  I then determined how many rays I wanted to be each color and inked them up in rainbow order starting with orange.  I used the following distress oxide inks:  Spiced Marmalade, Squeezed Lemonade, Lucky Clover, Salty Ocean, Chipped Sapphire, and Wilted Violet.  When I was finished with the main rays I inked up the smaller rays in the same order.  I then die cut the piece with an AJVD basic rectangle and some dark gray cardstock with the same die so I could layer the two per the Fab Friday sketch.  I then die cut the word sunshine from patterned paper that is part of the mini kit four times and layering them together.  The rest of the sentiment was stamped in VersaMark watermark ink on vellum and embossed with black embossing powder from WOW!   I adhered the vellum strip to the main panel and then adhered the die cut word.   Popped everything up on a white cardstock base. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wondeful day!