Tag: vellum

Happy Rainbow Butterflies Card!

Hello creative and crafty friends! Happy Monday, I mean Tuesday! It sure feels like Monday though! Ha. Hope you had a nice long weekend and official kick off to Summer. We stayed home the entire weekend…. We have so much to do around here and I have lots of projects to get made and photographed. We've had lovely weather and we're now ready for the season to change. I hope you are doing great!

Today's card is finally an idea from my head getting made! Yeah for that! Have you seen the GORGEOUS washi tapes from Pinkfresh Studio? I've made lots of cards with them before here on my blog. They are so amazing and lovely to work with. Everything from PFS is simply the highest quality!! I got the Butterflies Washi suite a few weeks ago and been dying to use it!! So, my card features those pretty butterflies…. Let's get to it!

My finished card is an A2 size white card base….layered with some mossy green paper from my stash, and then another layer of white cardstock. The butterflies are the star of the show here….

If you've never used the PFS washi tapes – they are so cool and easy! It's a giant roll of washi printed with the gorgeous design (butterflies)…. You roll the washi onto cardstock of any color (I used bright white) and then press it down really good. The matching dies cut out ALLLLL the design at ONE time! So, with one pass, I got like 15 butterflies, and the leaves too.

I stamped and die cut two of the Floral Envelopes dies for my butterflies to come flying out of. I affixed the envelopes to the card with foam tape. Then I arranged all the leaves and butterflies in rainbow order. I tucked some of them inside the envelope. Wouldn't you just love to open a card and have butterflies come flying out?!

Here's my side view. You can see that the washi tape elements are accented with beautiful gold….and the colors are vivid and clear.

I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment using gold embossing powder. I stamped on vellum – and then die cut the banner with the matching dies. (All my supplies are listed at the bottom of my post)

For my finishing touch, some splatters of gold ink, and pretty gold glitter drops!

CLICK HERE to see all the washi tapes that PFS has!!! Okay, friends, that's it for today! I'll be back on Friday with another Pinkfresh Studio card – we're having a blog hop! Yay! See you then and until then, happy crafting! XOXO

May 27, 2024
Chocolate Strawberries – with Paper! Yummy card and sweet Valentine Wishes for you!

Hey hey hey! LOTS and LOTS of Valentine's are happening here in my craft room! I ain't mad about it! So many good things to share with you right now! And just you wait until later in the month….. Hee hee! Today I'm sharing a project on The Greetery blog, and of course here on my blog too! I made a sweet card for Valentine's Day!! I used the super fabulous Strawberries dies and created a box of chocolates using traditional valentine colors…. In January, it's always nice to finish up the holidays, start a new year, and get super excited about making Valentine's! A nice change of colors and themes, and so many hearts. One of my very favorite Valentine treats (well any time actually) is Chocolate Covered Strawberries, and that's just what inspired my card for today! (Fun fact – there is a national company called Shari's Berries that makes the BEST chocolate strawberries…. That company started right here in Sacramento and back in the day you could just pop in the store and get one to go! It wasn't that far from my house, so guess what? I popped in a lot! Hahaha. Now they ship all over the world – such a cool success story!) Anyhoo, on to my card for today!

My finished card is A2 sized, and made from kraft cardstock. I layered deep pink and cream cardstocks to serve as my base for the strawberries. My card features lots of pretty stamps and die sets, including the Botanicuts Strawberries Dies combined with the Dippers Dies, the gorgeous Falling Hearts Background, and lots more. I kept a traditional Valentine color palette of cream, red, pink and brown. My supplies are listed at the bottom of my post or CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE FOR THE DETAILED SUPPLY LIST!

I started by die cutting the Falling Hearts Background from cream cardstock. I layered it over another sheet of cream cardstock for a tonal pattern. I splattered on some brown metallic paint and set that aside to dry. Next, I die cut out the strawberries, leaves, chocolate, and frosting pieces. I used small sponge daubers and Distress Inks to ink all the pieces and then glued them together using liquid glue. I added pretty glitter to the strawberries also.

CLICK HERE FOR THE DETAILED SUPPLY LIST!

I used the Curio Confections Dies set to make the little papers for the strawberries. I layered kraft and vellum pieces to mimic how they might look on a dessert table. (Okay now I'm hungry!) I die cut out the Sweet word dies using red cardstock and vellum to be my main sentiment. My secondary sentiment is from the Sweet Tooth Stamps set and stamped in brown onto a cream banner from Sentiment Suite Basics.

I used foam tape to attach the strawberries to the card in a grid. I added a few pretty red hearts and then put the sentiments on last. Such a fun way to kick off sweetheart season!

That's it for my card for today! Wishing you a happy Winter and Happy New Year AND Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you have a wonderful and creative day and I look forward to sharing with you again soon. In the meantime, happy crafting! XO Wanda

As always, if you're crafty shopping, I would be very grateful if you use my links to my favorite shops and help me out! Also, I've updated my gift ideas section in my Amazon Storefront, so you can check that out too!! And, very excited to now be a Target Creator which means I can share my favorite things from Target with you! Thank you!

CLICK HERE TO SHOP AT THE GREETERY!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the full supply list for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used)

January 9, 2024
Pretty Pink Posh – Birthday Celebration February 2023 New Release! Gift card holder birthday card!

Hello crafting pals! Happy Saturday! Hope your week was awesome! We have had a couple of weeks of sunshine here and the flowers are going crazy. We already have about 20 fully bloomed daffodils, and the tulips are sprouting! Tons of blossoms on all the trees and lots of camellias too. It feels good to be outside this time of year and I like it that it's still cold at night. I've been busy with tons of activities, mostly at church, and not as much crafting. Life is good here at the moment. Today I'm here on the blog as part of the giant Pretty Pink Posh Ninth Birthday Celebration! One of my favorite companies is nine years old this month – yay and congratulations to Pretty Pink Posh!

In order to celebrate PPP's birthday, there is a huge four day blog hop and also next week a big Instagram hop! Today is my day to join the blog hop and I'm glad you're here! I'll have another card next week too! Yippee! Prizes, supplies, discounts and the link list are at the bottom of my post today. Let's get started!

THE PPP BIRTHDAY NEW RELEASE IS ALREADY AVAILABLE FOR SHOPPING!!

My finished card is an A2 cream card base. I layered pretty purple cardstock and purple gingham as my base. My card features the brand new Gift Card Bag Die, The brand new Birthday Sentiments stamps and dies, and the brand new Wish stamps and dies. I used a color palette of purple, green, yellow and cream, with bits of gold and some sparkly glitter!

The star of the show is the awesome new GIft Card Bag Die! It perfectly holds a gift card for any occasion. I made a fun birthday card with mine to use all the new supplies! I die cut the bag from cream cardstock and gently inked just the bottom of the bag using Distress Ink and a Blender Brush. I heat embossed the sentiment in gold onto a vellum strip to go across the bottom of the bag. The sentiment is brand new and I LOVE it!

The top of the bag die has a pretty zig zag edge which just adds a nice detail. When I die cut the bag, I die cut a purple handle for it. I used a previously released die set to make some matching purple bows for the top. I tucked in some crumpled up vellum to look like gift bag tissue!

I colored everything with Copic Markers and added white gel pen accents. I splattered on gold paint and purple ink to the bag for a bit of artistic interest. I used a scallop circle and another cream circle to serve as my focal point for the birthday icons.

Here is my card with the coffee gift card tucked inside!! Fun fact about me – I collect Starbucks cards! For over twenty years! I have hundreds of them and so I can always find one that matches a theme or is perfect for the person! This one has a pretty birthday cake on it.

Here is some great sale information – and a free gift offer too!

My gift bag was attached to the card using foam tape to leave room for the vellum tissue and the gift card. I'll need a larger envelope, but that's okay!

Thank you for stopping by today! Enjoy the wonderful blog hop! Hope you have an awesome weekend! XO

There are EIGHT $25 gift certificates up for grabs from Pretty Pink Posh (two winners for each day of the hop!) Winners will be picked randomly along the blog hop comments so be sure to comment on ALL the blogs!! Comments must be left by 11:59 PM PST on 2/15/2023. Winners will be announced on the PPP blog! Good luck everyone!!

THE PPP BIRTHDAY NEW RELEASE IS ALREADY AVAILABLE FOR SHOPPING!!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see my supply list for today's card (Affiliate Links Used)!

TODAY'S BLOG HOP LINKS LIST! ENJOY THE HOP!

Pretty Pink Posh blog
Tammy Stark
Wanda Guess
Jeanne Jachna
Rachel Alvarado
Jeannie Lieu

February 11, 2023
Begin each week with a grateful heart! Honey Bee Fall Release!

Hello my sweet and crafty friends! Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend! My husband and I went and picked out all our pumpkins on Friday – for decorating and carving. It has been so hot here that we were waiting until it was a bit cooler to get our pumpkins home. We had a great time going to our two favorite places and choosing just the right ones. We are having cool mornings and it's delightful. The rest of the weekend I was crafting like crazy! I think it's safe to say that October is my busiest crafting month. All the holiday releases are out and people are planning their holiday crafting. Whew. It's been busy!! But it's all so good! This week will be a busy one too so I hope you'll enjoy hanging out with me! Let's begin the week (day) with a grateful heart – just like the card says!

REMINDER: I am having a giveaway until the end of the month – CLICK HERE for the details!

For today's card I used the brand new, stunning and classy, release from Honey Bee Stamps! I used the brand new Fall Foliage Dies and the new fall sentiment set. GORGEOUS. Oh, and a wax seal for good measure! My finished card is a square 5.25" x 5.25". The card base is kraft cardstock and then I layered with cream cardstock. I wanted a vintage fall vibe to show off those pretty leaves.

Here's the side view so you can see my layers. I wrapped the cream layer with twine and used foam tape to pop the cream layer up off the card base. This is an easy way to add some depth to your card.

The sentiment is stamped and gold heat embossed onto vellum (gorg) and I inked the edges of the card base….

Here are my leaves and that beautiful Maple Leaf wax seal!!! I am so excited that Honey Bee is doing wax seals!!! To make the leaves, I die cut the leaves out of Bristol cardstock. I used various shades of Distress Inks all over the leaves. I let them dry. I then splashed water over the leaves to make some interest. I let them dry again. Then I added gold paint splatters and brown paint splatters!! The key to this look is to really let them dry in between each technique. Blast with your heat tool or just let them air dry. They are so pretty in person!!

Here's a close up of the wax seal!! I used the new metallic wax melts. LOVE.

I added pretty gems in earth tones…

This card has everything I love!! Fall leaves, wax seals, rich colors and vellum! LOL. This sentiment set is literally the most gorgeous sentiment set I've seen all year. I absolutely love it. The mix of fonts and styles is perfection.

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you have a great week! Do you have any fun plans? What are you crafting lately?? Take care and I'll see you soon!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below for the supply links for today's card (affiliate links used).

October 17, 2022
You’re the ZEST! Fun, happy lemon card!

Hi friends! How are you this week so far? It's been a nice day here, kinda mellow, getting a lot done! How was your weekend? We escaped to the water on Friday and enjoyed some much needed outdoor time in the 68 degree weather!! It was AMAZING!! Time seems to be flying by the past couple of weeks and I'm so excited with anticipation of Autumn!! The light is changing and it's a bit darker in the morning and it just feels a little different. I love it! Today I sat down and made a project, took the photos, and am sharing it all the same day. I really like it when that happens. Sometimes a stamp set or product comes across my desk and I have to use it right NOW! Lolz. That's what happened with these stamps, dies and stencils I used today from Taylored Expressions. I am becoming an avid stenciler and these lemons are so fabulous! And my message to you: You're the ZEST!!

My finished card is an A2 woodgrain card base. I layered only one layer (with the stenciling), a bit of gingham, and a bit of vellum. The lemons are the star of the show for sure. I used cream cardstock for everything, instead of bright white cardstock. Lends more of an old fashioned feel to my card.

The lemons and leaves are two stencils. I used large and small blender brushes to ink the yellows and greens. I really love shading + stenciling!! The set comes with tiny stamps to add as leaf accents and lemon accents as you can see in the close up. Easy to get these pretty results. I splattered on some white paint too. The finished stencil piece was 6×6 but I cut it down to layer onto an A2 card.

I used the separate lemons, flowers and leaves dies to add accent pieces to my sentiment frame. I die cut them from cream cardstock and used the same colors of inks and my blender brushes to color them to match.

I heat embossed the sentiment in gold onto cream cardstock and die cut it out with the matching die. I added a few yellow enamel dots to the centers of the flowers and a few yellow hearts too, for good measure. This card just makes me smile and it was fun and relaxing to create. I really seem to get in the zone now when I'm stenciling… (Just wait until my card for Thursday!!)

I popped up the sentiment with foam tape. I layered a cream rectangle over a vellum rectangle for the focus area.

I feel like now I want some lemon meringue pie!!!

It's very hard to get a good photo of the gold embossing!!

Okay my zesty friends! That's it for today! I hope you have a wonderful day, and week! I'll see you back here soon! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used)

August 9, 2022
Honey Bee by the Sea!

Hi friends! Happy Sunday! Hope you are enjoying a wonderful Sunday afternoon…. Today is so peaceful at my house! We got up and went to early church because of the heat and got some yummy breakfast…. Now everyone is hanging out quietly and peacefully. Oh, and having ice cream too! My husband was in Los Angeles all last week for his work, and he got home late last night. Lucky is so happy to see him! (Me too!) Our little family is back together and all is right with the world again. I got some much needed time to myself last week to think and read and study and rest, and NO news or emails. I'm sure lots of you can relate – the hubs and I have been together in our house 24/7 for two and a half years!! Like not even one day apart. I needed a moment shall we say. Hahaha. Twenty Nine years and counting, and we're still best friends! I'm very fortunate to have such a good husband! (I'm the weird one for sure!)

When we came home from church today I came in the craft room and just started playing with no plan in mind. Well, I ended up making something pretty and thought I would share it with you, and maybe some stories too. I live in Sacramento California, which lately is as hot as the surface of the sun for lord knows how many days in a row. I'm delirious and my brain is melting. Whenever we get a heat wave like this all I can think of is OCEANNNNNNNN. I am an ocean person through and through. I started thinking about it, why do I have such an attachment to the ocean?? I guess lots of reasons. Everything good for me in my life happened at the ocean! I was born on the ocean to a dad who was in the Navy (Norfolk, Virginia). My family is from Carmel, California and I started my school years there. I got married (twice) at the ocean (One Pacific – Carmel, and one Atlantic – Cape Cod). I lived in Half Moon Bay for a while and saw the ocean every single day…. I went to college near the ocean… I worked in San Francisco for several years… When we go on vacation we always end up at the ocean or on a boat!! So many good times! My childhood got kind of wonky when my mom left for a new life, but I always had my grandmother's house in Monterey. Every good and pure childhood memory I have came from there and it was always misty and foggy and salty at her house… and I can easily conjure up the most wonderful scent in the world: Fog + Eucalyptus Trees. I wish I could bottle that scent and share it with you!! If I ever win lotto, I'm buying a big beach house and you can all come and craft with me! Doesn't that sound amazing!? Anyhoo, I'm rambling and sharing, probably over sharing. But dang it, it's hot, and like I said all I can think about is the ocean!!! We are only about 75 miles from the ocean here, a day trip really, but it's been hot there too! I keep checking the weather for a good 50 degree foggy day and I'm outta here! LOLZ.

Where do you feel the happiest? The Lake? The Desert? The Mountains? Ocean? Leave a comment and let me know what your favorite place is!! I'd love to know!

Which finally leads me to my project! Ha! Last week I received the most wonderful and generous package of goodies from my friends at Honey Bee Stamps and guess what? It was full of Ocean-y Things! It's like they read my mind! Honey Bee has wax seals and wax melts now!! And Layered Dies of Seashells! OH YEAH! Everything is so pretty and I'll be making some more projects. But here's the first one! I have always loved wax seals. I have acquired a pretty good collection over the years and I have maybe 25 or so. I really love the look of them and the pretty designs and the details you can put on your projects… I created a plain card with a pretty vellum and paper wrapped envelope….sealed with a kiss shell. I used the new Wax Melts and Wax Stamper along with the new papers and dies. All the supplies are listed at the bottom of my post.

This is an A6 envelope in Kraft from Paper Source. I splattered on some white paint and let that dry. I cut an A6 notecard (my letter is on the other side). I wrapped the envelope with the new Vitamin Sea Paper and also some vellum. I wrapped twine around it. This part is like a belly band. It comes all the way off. I just have it like this for the photo. I die cut some sea grass from the new die set and then made my wax seal…

The sea grass is cut from green paper and then gently inked with Green Distress Inks. Here's a close up of that gorgeous seal and the paper. I'M IN LOVE.

I made three different wax seals in different colors.

I used the Vitamin Sea Wax Melts! Have you ever done a wax seal before? It's so easy! These little melts are so much easier than using the stick kind that has a wick. I put 3-4 of these little pieces into my melting spoon and hold it over a small tea light candle. They melt nice and evenly and you can see they make such a nice appearance. I encourage you to try it sometime! It's fancy!

That's it for this Sunday afternoon! So nice to see ya! This week we have some fun projects coming up! A new release blog hop from Pinkfresh Studio on Wednesday and a Greetery project on Friday! I have to say that my project for Friday is in my top ten favorite things I've ever made!!! I cannot wait to share it with you!!! Have a good week and I'll see you soon! Love you guys. XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used).

July 24, 2022
Fun with Taylored Expressions! Fun graphic Christmas Trees – in pink!

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas! Yes, I know I'm a little early, lol, but I'm excited to share some beautiful new stamps and dies and stencils from Taylored Expressions! Taylor has perfects the stamp/stencil combo in my opinion. She has turned me into a huge stencil fan! Today TE is launching brand new product lines for Winter and Christmas and I'm excited that I got to preview and try some things early!! I love how today's card came out – with all the pretty retro pastel colors and pops of gold!

CLICK HERE to SHOP the TAYLORED EXPRESSIONS NEW RELEASE!

My finished card is an A2 white card base. I layered gold glitter paper and then pretty pink paper for the top layer. I also used a classic vellum strip for my embossed sentiment. I love these colors together! Reminds me of the 60's.

This product suite has the big stamp of all the trees – which I heat embossed in gold… Then it has the matching stencils – which I used with Distress Oxide Inks and blender brushes… Finally it has the large matching Die – which I used to layer over the trees! I used foam tape strips to pop the pink part over the trees. The sentiment is from the Joyful Season Stamp Set (supplies are listed at the bottom of my post!)

I splattered white paint to look like snow all over my pretty trees….

I wrapped the vellum strip around everything before attaching it to my card base. Nice and polished looking!

I love making flat cards for mailing at the holidays! This would be easy to mail, but it still has a nice impact!

Are you ready to start Christmas crafting yet? I think I'm ready when I see all the pretty new things to craft with! But mentally I'm in Fall mode! LOL.

That's it for today's happy Christmas card! Thanks for stopping by! I will see you real soon! XO

SHOP THE NEW TE CHRISTMAS RELEASE HERE!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply list for today's card! (Affiliate Links Used)

September 28, 2021
TGIF – The Greetery Inspiration Friday – You’re a Peach!

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! I'm really happy to be featuring this project here today, and over on The Greetery Blog! TGIF! (The Greetery Inspiration Friday) My husband and I love to go to Farmers Markets in the Summertime. We are very lucky to have a lot of great markets nearby (we live in Northern California) and it's so nice to be out in the cool mornings choosing fresh produce and flowers. The past two weeks at all the markets there have been peaches, peaches, peaches everywhere! So I was inspired to make a peachy keen card to share with you today. We are even going to a Peach Festival on Sunday! So this card just seems appropriate! I hope you are having a gorgeous Summer day where you are!

This is a big, square card. The finished size is 5.5" x 5.5" and I made the card base by folding and scoring a sheet of Neenah cardstock. I knew I wanted to balance the orange/yellow of the peaches with blue… Orange and Blue are opposites on the color wheel so they always look great together. I used the brand new Jumbo Jar along with those gorgeous Peaches released last year… All the stamps and dies are from The Greetery of course!

I stamped and die cut out several peaches using the Peachy Keen Stamp Set and matching Dies. I also stamped and die cut out several leaf clusters. I used the brand new Jumbo Jar Die Cut to make a mason jar for my fresh peaches. The lid is made from Silver metallic cardstock.

I stamped the "you're a" stamp from the Just Peachy Sentiments stamp set – and heat embossed it in white onto black cardstock. I die cut the word "peach" from white cardstock and inked an ombre effect using the two ink colors from the peaches. I used vellum as the background. I tried a LOT of color combinations to get the peaches the color I wanted!! (All the ink colors are listed in the supplies). I finally found the right balance of yellow and orange…

I used the beautiful Fit To Be Tied dies to make a Kraft paper bow for the top of the jar. I splashed and splattered some white paint over the peaches, leaves and background. I assembled the jar, peaches and leaves and set that aside so I could make the sentiments.

I used the Square Dance Stencils to create the background. I only used one shade of ink – and all three stencils – to get a monochromatic gingham look. It's really fresh and pretty. Those stencils are a dream.

I arranged the peaches inside the jar first and then tucked the leaves in afterwards to get the right balance of orange and green.

After everything was assembled, I added a few peachy colored glitter enamel dots to finish off my project. I do love some bling! I hope your weekend is JUST PEACHY! Can't wait to see you soon with more projects. XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used)

July 30, 2021
Pinkfresh Studio June 2021 New Release Blog Hop!

Greetings and salutations my crafty friends! And, welcome to my blog if you're new here today! Today is a big fun fabulous blog hop to celebrate the June new release from Pinkfresh Studio! Oh yeah! You know they came up with more gorgeous things for us to stamp with! I am sharing three cards today – and lots of pictures! Please be sure to read all the way to the bottom of my post for the supply list, the blog hop list, and prize information!! So glad to see you here at the start of the first week of Summer! XO

There is a new suite of products launching today called Small Butterflies – there are stamps, dies, stencils and a hot foil plate and they all work together perfectly to allow you to create a million different looks, depending on what creative mood you're in! I chose to use the hot foil plate and the dies along with my favorite watercolor plates to create a Summer flourish of butterflies. My finished card is an A2 woodgrain paper card base. For this card all the paper I used is watercolor paper!!

I started by using my Hot Foil System and the Small Butterflies Hot Foil Plate with Polished Brass foil. I foiled the entire plate and then die cut the butterflies out with the matching die. I did the hot foiling onto watercolor paper – so nice and thick and rich looking – like letterpress!! I die cut the stitched rectangle background layer from watercolor paper also. I hot foiled and die cut out the 'celebrate' word using the same hot foil and watercolor paper.

I used my favorite watecolor palette and painted a wash of blue/aqua on the rectangle layer and set that aside to dry. I used my watercolors to color in the butterflies, right over the foiling. It looks so pretty in person!

That little brown strip is one of the pieces from the Artistic Bow Die that I cut out and water colored….

I die cut out a few of the Curvy Leaves dies from watercolor paper and colored them in pretty green shades… I splattered on some gold flecks of paint to tie in the gold of the butterflies.

I die cut a stitched circle from watercolor paper. I used the pretty Folk Garden Background Stamp to stamp the design onto the circle. Then I sprayed it with water to make a softer effect. I was going to use a plain circle, but it looked 'naked' before the stamping!! I added a few gold enamel dots and some twine.

I can't really express how beautiful this hot foiling is! It's like a dream…and the hot foil plate is perfection. I got a sharp, exact impression the very first time I used it. It's just the prettiest thing ever!! IN THIS POST HERE – I talk at length about using the hot foil system – I hope you try it!

I used liquid glue to attach the butterflies to the card. I gently folded them in half and glued right under the body. I held each one in place with a chopstick until it was dry. They will fold flat for mailing but you can pop them up later!

This next card is a 5" x 5" square card made from white cardstock. Then I layered teal cardstock and more white cardstock! I used the beautiful new Lemons and Blueberries suite of products. There are Stamps, Dies, and Washi! OMG this floral/lemon design is really lovely! You take the big washi tape and press it onto white cardstock, then die cut out all the pieces with the matching dies. Genius…and oh so pretty.

Here is a photo showing the stamps, dies and washi….dreamy….

The sentiment is made from the 'lots of love' layered die set. I used teal for the words and vellum for the outline!! I die cut a square die cut out of white and then attached the sentiment in the center. I used the pieces of the washi/die cuts and framed the sentiment. I also die cut vellum leaves using the Leafy Branch die cut. I tucked the vellum leaves into the other pieces.

I splattered a bit of white paint onto both the teal background and the sentiment.

I wanted a bit of interest on the teal layer so I used the Diamond Tiles Stamp (with my MISTI) and white pigment ink to create a soft plaid background. It adds just a little something!

I almost used yellow paper for the background on this card, but something told me to try green… I tried several shades and then settled on this bold teal. The washi tape has so many subtle and yummy colors in it, but I wanted to pick up this particular shade!

My third card takes us back to the butterflies! This finished card is an A2 card base of purple cardstock. I decided to use only purple and gold on this one – for a different look than the first butterfly card.

I got the idea for this card when I first hot foiled the small butterflies plate! This is how it came out! I was like….hmmm….that needs to be it's own card just like that! LOL. So I used it as my background for the card.

I watercolored three of the butterflies in purple paint and let them dry. I splattered a bit of purple paint onto the background layer too. For the sentiment I die cut the hello from purple cardstock. I used a layer of vellum to set it off, and wrapped some gold thread around the card too. A few purple gems finish it off.

It looks just like gold letterpress!

You may have noticed the flowers in the background of my card pictures! They are my prized Nikko Blue Hydrangeas from my garden! They are going crazy crazy crazy already this year!! A bountiful crop already! We got married in Cape Cod and when we came home we planted these bushes to remind us of Nantucket and the Cape. I love them so much and I always have blooms in the house all Summer…

FOR TODAY'S SUPPLY LIST – CLICK HERE – OR THE GRAPHIC BELOW!

PRIZE INFORMATION! Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel! Pinkfresh Studio will also be giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the blog hop!! The winners will be picked from the blog comments. (So be sure to visit all the blogs!) They will pull the winners & post them on June 29 , 2021 on the Pinkfresh Studio GIVEAWAY PAGE. Reminder- you must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks. Please also note that Pinkfresh is offering free US shipping on all orders $50+ from June 21th to June 28th. Use code: JUNESHIPUSA

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE ALL THE BLOG HOP PARTICIPANTS!!

ENJOY THIS WONDERFUL HOP FULL OF INSPIRATION AND FUN!!

June 21, 2021
Pretty Pink Posh Spring 2021 New Release – Easter Cards!

Hi crafty pals! Happy Friday! It's been a SUPER busy week around here! Whew! Four blog posts in five days! LOTS of good things happening, that's for dang sure. Easter is everywhere and I love it. Easter is my favorite holiday, and all the companies hit it out of the park this year with their Spring/Easter new releases. I am so happy and blessed to be able to share all of these things with you! I've been having so much fun creating. I hope you had a good week and I'm sending you good wishes for an amazing weekend. Thanks for stopping by all week, and thank you for all the support!

There are certain crafty things I look forward to every year…. And one of them is the annual Easter release from Pretty Pink Posh! I feel like Paulina gets it right every time. The perfect mix of fun and cute, and also classy and elegant. Something for every style. Today PPP is doing an Instagram Hop that I'm part of! Click over to Instagram and leave comments there for a chance at some prizes! I also wanted to share my cards here on my blog too! I have two cards to show you today. First up is this absolutely cheerful Easter basket full of eggs and adorable bun buns!! I used the new Easter Basket Die (LOVE) along with the new Easter Bunnies Stamp Set. The finished card is an A2 white card base. I layered blue paper and then gingham and then that beautiful Scallop Frame.

Here's a side view to show all the layers – lots of foam tape! You know me! LOL.

These little animals are so sweet! I stamped and die cut out the bunnies, bird, eggs, and carrots and colored them with Copic Markers. I added white gel pen accents to all the elements, and a few sparkly enamel dots.

Here's a photo of just the Easter Basket Die. It comes in three pieces – the basket, the separate rim/edge piece, and the scalloped grass piece. I die cut it from kraft cardstock and inked the edges with Distress Ink. I also splattered on some white paint. It's the perfect size!!

These are the Copic colors I used for the bunnies. (Sorry the photo is a little blurry due to late night crafting!!)

I just love this little guy hanging over the edge!! I stamped the sentiment onto a vellum strip so it would show up better. I knew I wanted to place it behind the basket handle, but I didn't want another piece of white paper on the card. Vellum worked out great!

My second card for today features the brand new Floral Corners stamps and dies. SO elegant and pretty!! This finished card is an A2 size made from pretty teal cardstock. My top layer and all the other pieces of paper, are watercolor paper. I used gold embossing and my favorite water color palette. Classic Easter florals I think! I took a chance with that teal card base – something a bit different.

This photo shows a close up of the floral spray. I colored everything with water color paints. I splashed on a good amount of shimmer pearl paint on top of my watercoloring after it was dry. I love that deep rose pink color.

The sentiment was die cut from watercolor paper also. I used the same color as the flowers and created an ombre effect with the words. I splashed some shimmer paint on the word dies as well.

I die cut the top layer from the same watercolor paper using a stitched rectangle die. I splattered some gold paint onto the background panel to pick up the gold embossing feel. I added a few enamel dots here and there to finish off the card.

And here's a photo of my photo area! I did some photographs for a client and was cleaning up and saw this pretty grouping of items left over! The daffodils are from our front yard. We had about 200 of them this year!! They are starting to wind down and the tulips are popping up. I'm very grateful to have a husband with an amazing green thumb. I can barely keep one plant alive inside the house!

Thanks for coming by today – and all week!! I hope you have a fantastic weekend!

March 12, 2021
Pretty Pink Posh Love, Hugs & Kisses! New Release for January 2021!

Hi sweethearts! It's time to get ready for Valentine's Day and all the stamp companies are releasing cute releases with love and hearts in mind! The newest release from Pretty Pink Posh is soooooo sweet! I made a fun Valentine's card using some of the new stamps and some of their older dies and stencils. It's a confectionary concoction full of pink, red and gold. The perfect palette for hearts day! All the the new products are already available now! I'll be participating in a fun Instagram Hop tomorrow and we'll all be featuring the new release. Lots of good things happening!

My finished card is a custom size I made to fit the LOVE across the front. It measures 6" x 3.75" so it will fit into an A7 envelope just fine. The card base is white and then I layered gold and white using the pretty border die….

I stamped and die cut the pretty heart with the small images inside. I heat embossed it with gold embossing powder…and colored with my Copics. Then I die cut out the LVE from red cardstock and splattered gold paint on top! I heat embossed the hugs and kisses sentiment on black….

The new die set comes with an 'outer' die and dots… I stamped and embossed that image onto vellum and die cut it out to layer behind the top white heart. In this photo you can see how I layered everything onto the card with foam squares.

I used the border die to cut the bottom of the white layer and to cut a gold layer. I like how the gold just peeks out from under the rest of the card. The background was stenciled using blender brushes and Spun Sugar Distress Ink along with a beautiful stencil from Pretty Pink Posh.

That's it for today, my loves! Are you already in the mood for Valentine's? I have to get out my supplies and get more in the mood! LOL. I think I'm still recovering from Christmas crafting in my studio!! Remember to pop by the Instagram Hop tomorrow to see all the other projects!! XOXO

January 14, 2021
Thanksgiving Blessings and pretty leaves!

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! I'm back! Did you miss me at all? I sure missed you, and missed blogging here with you! I haven't posted since Halloween. I'm pretty sure this is the longest I've gone in 11 years without blogging. I didn't know I needed a break, but evidently I did. It naturally happened, a little break from stamping like a crazy woman. I've been generally feeling a creative block and that's okay. It happens from time to time and I've learned over the years to just go with it. Focus on something else and let my brain rest. So instead of stamping, I've been cross stitching and decorating my house and watching a lot of tv with my husband…and cooking…. Other creative pursuits! I finished my Halloween stitching and started a cute snowman stitch. Usually I am a holdout for decorating for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving, but this year it's already full on Winter Wonderland here. I dunno. Just made me happy and cozy this year to put up the lights and sparkly Christmas things. A lot of my friends have said they're decorating early this year too. We must all be ready for the joy of Christmas time. 2020 has been a ride!

It finally rained here last Friday and it was awesome! We went out in it and drove around and enjoyed the wet weather. My birthday happened on the 3rd. I think this is my first birthday ever that we've spent it at home. We ordered a pizza and hung out here. Just was weird with it being election day and everything. Normally we like to take a little Fall trip around my birthday. But, like everything else this year, um no. It's cancelled too. I'm praying that all of you reading this are doing well and staying healthy and happy. As we move into the holidays I just want to again thank you for following along with me and for all of your kindness throughout this year. XOXO

Now, onto some crafting! I woke up this morning and went in the craft room and got out my bin of 'not used yet' things. Well, this beautiful stamp/stencil combo from Taylored Expressions jumped right on out at me. And I thought – YES! A Thanksgiving card is just the thing for today! So I stamped this, photographed it and posted it all in the same day! That hardly ever happens! But it feels nice to be in the moment with you today. I am resisting the urge to make all the Christmas things but I may just give in on that too! LOL. But first, one more card with leaves….

One of the big trends for the past year in stamping/crafting is the invention of Stamp/Die/Stencil Combo products. I LOOOOOVE this trend! And no one is doing it better than Taylored Expressions!! As soon as I saw this stamp/stencil combo (Fall Foliage) I knew I had to have it! I used it to make the background for today's card. It's a stamp of the stems/veins and then three stencils to layer on top to do the colored leaves. It's freakin genius!!! And SO super easy to get perfect results!! The finished card is an A2 card base. The large stamp is bigger than A2 size so you can trim it to whatever size you like. Step out photos are later in the post. I gold embossed the leaf stems and the beautiful sentiment for that warm glow of Thanksgiving….

EEKS. Like seriously, how pretty is this???

I cut the leaf panel with my new Deckle Edge Trimmer (LOOOOVE) and layered it twice onto woodgrain paper from my stash. The sentiment was embossed onto vellum and wrapped across the front of the card. I added an orange heart to add another pop of color under the vellum. A little bit of twine and some clear dots finished it off. The leaves are the star of the show on this card.

Here's a close up of that pretty Deckled Edge. It looks like an old photograph. I'm obsessed with it already! The trimmer has been on my wish list since January when I got to try it out at Creativation. It's finally available! So I bought it asap!!! CLICK HERE to see what I'm talking about!!

These are the two pretty products that are the focus of my card today!

Here are the three stencils you use to make three different leaf shapes. If you look closely you can see some embossed veins in the plastic stencil. These are what you use to perfectly line up the stencils. Genius.

I used my MISTI to stamp the big background stamp in Versamark and gold heat emboss onto cream cardstock.

Stencil one is taped down with washi tape onto scratch paper….

First up – oranges!

I used my TE Blender Brushes and two shades of orange to do the first stencil….Already looks pretty!!

Next up – reds!

Here's what it looked like after oranges and reds…

And finally – yellows!!

The colors of Fall and Thanksgiving!

OMG I think I squealed when I took the last stencil off! SO BEAUTIFUL!

And here's a dream close up…

And again, that Deckled Edge….swoon….

Okee dokee – looks like I remembered how to do a blog post! Nice to see you all again after a break! Next week I have amazing news – a new release from The Greetery! That's what I'll be working on next. You're gonna love it. Super creative and interesting and of course beautiful new designs from The Greetery. Can't wait to share all of that with you. I hope you have an excellent week. Thanks for stopping by! XOXO

If you are online shopping I would be super grateful if you would check out my list of stores that I am an affiliate for! (Keeping the lights on and all that jazz)

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's card! (Affiliate Links Used).

November 16, 2020
9-11 Remembrance Card – Home of the BRAVE

Hi everyone…. I decided to do a second blog post for today…. I made this card this morning and really wanted to share it on this day of remembrance of 9/11. It's truly a day of reflection and prayer for me and my household. I was moved this morning to create on the spot – something I love to do. I spent the morning thinking about 9/11 and our country and her people. I prayed and thought back to that fateful day….and made this card in quiet. I miss the days when I used to craft what I was feeling. Nowadays it seems like most of my crafting is scheduled and planned! Today's card is from my heart.

I will briefly share my 9/11 story. Everyone remembers where they were that morning… I was at home, getting ready for work and watching the Today show in our bedroom. (It was 6am in California). Even though everything started happening in New York, I got ready and went to the office. It was weird, we all showed up for work. I don't think we knew what else to do. My co-workers and I spent most of the day watching TV at the office in the hallway in between the cubicles. I worked in a big insurance office with about 100 employees. Not one single phone was ringing… It was so quiet. There were a lot of tears and shocked disbelief. We sat there stunned until we all finally went home and tried to process what happened.

The personal side of the story is that we were due to be married in three weeks – back East in Cape Cod. In 2001, we had been dating for 8 and a half years…and we had finally planned our wedding!…. Now we were wondering should we go? Can we go? Are we allowed to fly? Will anything be open? Is it appropriate? We prayed and prayed and decided to go ahead as planned. But we had to wait and see if there would be flights… Remember for a couple of weeks there were zero planes in the air. I distinctly remember thinking – wow, what a reminder of how short life is, and that I'd better live to the fullest while I can. Each day truly a gift. (Our wedding was just us, the photographer and the minister, so it was easy to still go) We got married on the beach at the Chatham Bars Inn – gazebo (I know some of you know where that is!)

So here's the remarkable thing, and something my husband and I talk about all the time. We flew 3000 miles where we knew no one, to get married. We traveled around New York (Adirondacks), Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, New England, and the Cape and Islands….for two and a half weeks. Every single person was KIND to us. Helpful, welcoming, lovely, sweet, and AMERICAN. People thanked us for traveling (because no one was). People helped us find our way around (no iphones yet). People gave us upgraded rooms because it was our honeymoon. I'm getting the chills writing this. We were in Boston for a few days. Every boat in the harbor had an American Flag flying. Every building had the flag out front. The post office in Salem MA had like 75 flags in front. Everywhere there was a sense of patriotism and love for our beautiful country. Compassion for others. Kindness towards strangers. I will never ever ever forget what that felt like. America at her best, after the worst thing imaginable… Something to think about here in 2020. I literally cannot believe that was almost twenty years ago. Wow.

If you feel inclined – I would love to hear your 9/11 story in the comments. I think it's important to remember this day and to share our experiences to bring us closer together as Americans. XO

Okay, for my card… I have a couple of plastic bins in my craft room filled with patriotic stamps, dies, papers, stickers, etc. I reached for those bins and grabbed some of my very favorite Americana themed supplies from Taylored Expressions. I have lots and lots of old and new supplies from TE, so some of these things are no longer available. (CLICK HERE to see the patriotic section of TE). The finished card is an A2 kraft card base.

I embossed the stars embossing folder onto kraft cardstock for my top layer. I used vellum and white heat embossed that GORGEOUS sentiment! It's big and bold and the perfect saying for today. Next I stamped the USA map and die cut it with the matching die. I thought the map would fit on the card under the sentiment, but I was wrong! LOL. So I ended up tucking the map underneath the vellum – then I wrapped the vellum around the top layer. I actually love how this looks!

After I embossed the stars, I used a sponge dauber and white pigment ink and inked over the stars to make them show up better. Then I squinched the paper and folded the corners using my fingers – to make it look aged. I also inked the edges with Distress ink. I added some Doodlebug Stars shapes. Finally, I used my brand new Metallic Water Colors and splashed some gold over the entire card. On the background of the card base you can see that I stamped some larger stars.

Sending you blessings, love and kindness on this day of remembrance. I hope you had a good day. XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below for the supplies for this patriotic card.

September 11, 2020
Pinkfresh Studio New Release – April 2020 – Blog Hop!

Heeeeyyyyyyy creative and crafty friends! Thanks for stopping by today! It's a fun blog hop today to celebrate the brand new release from Pinkfresh Studio! Everything they make is fresh and pretty – and this release is just that – fresh and pretty! I love being able to join the awesome crew at Pinkfresh to share the love. You should have arrived here from Tae-Eun's blog! Welcome! So glad you're here.

The new release is live now for shopping! CLICK HERE to go to their website and look around at the new things! I have two projects to share today. Please read all the way to the bottom of my post for details on prizes and shipping deals!!

First up is a card made with the fabulous new Diagonal Stripes Die and the new Whole Lot of Awesome stamp set! The finished card is a 4.75" square card. I used heat embossing, vellum, and some pretty flowers too!

I started this card by choosing a modern color palette of lime, aqua, coral and grey. That's where my inspiration came from for these projects. Some of my favorite colors. I used those four colors with vellum and bright white! I first die cut the Diagonal Stripes one time from each color paper. Then I layered them onto a thin piece of paper using an adhesive roller. Once I had the strips in order, I used a Stitched Square Die to cut them into a perfect square for my background.

I used this gorgeous new stamps and white embossing powder to emboss the sentiment onto a vellum strip. I splattered the vellum with white gloss spray also. I wrapped the vellum around the square/stripes layer and the grey bottom layer. I affixed it on the back using adhesive runner. I made some flowers using the Lovely Blossoms Stamps and dies.

Here is my pretty pile of stripes!!

To finish off this card I used pretty, shiny, bright white enamel dots for the flower centers and accents.

Next up is a pretty trio of tags I made using the Fillable Pocket Tags and the brand new awesome Bows Dies! I used the exact same color palette (because it makes me happy!) and also used vellum and white. I'm going to save these pretty tags to tie onto gift bags and wine bottles. I love to have handmade tags in my stash for when I'm putting a gift together. You could also glue these tags onto a card front – the ideas are endless! The white tags tuck into the grey sleeve.

Here's a close up of that pretty bow! I accented it with silver cardstock. I do love shimmer and vellum together! The tag set comes with smaller dies that cut out the designs. I love this concept!

This is the other bow in the new die set. I love that it's really modern and different!!

I splattered white glossy spray onto the grey parts of the tag holders. I also used the same enamel dots and twine as accents.

Here are my little tag holders!! You can see those accent dies in the background.

I die cut the beautiful Leafy Envelope Die using vellum and then snipped off the top part with my scissors. This way, the leaves look like they're busting out of the top of the tag holder!! I love how this came out.

These would make wonderful Christmas tags – with red and green and maybe pops of gold cardstock instead of silver! An entirely different look with the same supplies.

Okay, that's it for my projects today! Thank you for coming by! Next up on the blog hop is Yasmin Diaz! To see the entire blog hop list, please go to the Pinkfresh Studio Blog!

PRIZE ALERT PRIZE ALERT PRIZE ALERT! Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog, Instagram feed & YouTube channel. WOWZA! Each blog stop will be giving away a $25 gift card on our blog posts! So be sure to leave a comment here and on all the other blogs. The winners will be picked from the comments. Pinkfresh will pull the winners & post them on May 8, 2020 on their Giveaway Page. Be sure to check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks!!

Pinkfresh is also offering free US or discounted international shipping on all orders $35+ from April 30th to May 7th!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's projects! (Affiliate Links Used).

April 30, 2020
Sending a Squeeze!

Hello friends! What day is it? It's Friday! I'm excited to have a project over on The Greetery Blog today! I'm posting here too because sharing is caring! Every Friday on The Greetery Blog there is a feature called TGIF = The Greetery Inspiration Friday = and one of us on the design team shares a card or project with everyone. Well, today is my day! Yeah! I'm sharing a bright and cheerful card for you this Spring Friday! As the season changes to Spring I am always inspired to use vivid and happy colors in my crafting. Right now I am making everything with yellow! I guess we can all use a little sunshine, right? And I know I could use a squeeze! (I'm definitely a hugger)

I'm featuring one of my very favorite The Greetery stamp sets – Lemon Blossom. So fresh and pretty, and so many different ways to use this stamp set. I combined it with the beautiful Windowpane Background Stamp. Reminds me of a pretty tablecloth with a big bowl of lemons. I even made my husband go out in the backyard and get some lemons to use in my photo shoot! LOL! The finished card is an A2 kraft card base.

I used a MISTI to stamp and heat emboss the background in white embossing powder onto a sheet of teal cardstock. Then I die cut that layer out with the awesome Crimped Dies. Then I added a layer of vellum, die cut from the smallest size of the Crimped Dies.

I wanted to try something a bit different with the lemons, leaves and flowers stamps. So I stamped the images onto colored cardstock instead of white! I used a slightly darker shade of the same color to stamp onto the paper. I used the matching dies to cut out everything.

The Lemon Blossom stamp set has the word "squeeze" in it! I paired that word with the "sending a" word dies. At this time, I know I miss squeezing my friends…so this is the perfect card to send.

I finished off the card with a few clear gems in the flower centers. I also used white paint to splatter white ink onto the die cut pieces and the background. That is one of my favorite techniques!

Wishing you a beautiful weekend full of happiness and creativity! Take care friends. I'll be back on Monday with a pretty water color card I made with Altenew stamps and dies! XOXO

Please head over to THE GREETERY BLOG to share some love and look around at all the other inspiration there! I'm so blessed to be part of this creative team!

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supply list for today's project! (Affiliate Links Used)

April 17, 2020
All My Love Vintage Typewriter Card!

Helllooooooo! Happy Monday and happy February! January seemed like it took forever! Geez. But here we are in the month of love! It's been really warm here and on Saturday we picked daffodils in our front yard already. Things are blooming for sure. Feels like the beginning of Spring. Hope you had a great weekend! I have a really fun project I'm excited to share with you. The idea for this card has been in my head for a while. I am really into old vintage typewriters with flowers. I love everything about that look and image. When Tim Holtz came out with his new Retro Type Die I knew I wanted to somehow create a typewriter card with pretty florals….

My finished card is a 5.5 x 5.5 inch square card with a kraft card base. I layered pretty patterned papers and mixed and matched flowers and type – another of my favorite looks….

This card has lots of layers and elements. It was an 'all day' card! I love those. When I take my time and create, and layer and all that good stuff. At first I made a pink typewriter, but then I changed it up and made an aqua typewriter so I could use pink flowers. All the dies are from Tim Holtz – and are outlined in the supply list at the bottom of my post. Those tiny type dies are awesome!!!! The sentiment is spelled out on a piece of vellum – that I distressed with ink and paint.

I die cut the typewriter pieces and the heart and a ton of flowers our of kraft core cardstock. I then sanded the edges and inked everything with Distress inks. I crumpled the vellum with my fingers…love how that came out. A pretty metal accent tied with twine. I enjoy mixing hard and soft surfaces in this way.

Here are some process photos of my die cuts…

OH that pretty type!!!

Here's the Typewriter and letter dies for reference.

I attached the typewriter to the card using foam tape. Then I used liquid glue to affix the flowers to the typewriter and to attach the letters to the vellum. Tip – use tweezers!! I added enamel dots to the centers of the flowers for a bit of shine.

For the flowers, I die cut them from kraft core cardstock. Then I layered them and inked them… Then splattered them with Vintage Photo Distress Ink and then Copic Opaque White paint. (yes, this took a while!)… I let each layer of ink/paint dry before doing the next step.

I love how this card came out and I'm so happy to share it with you!! It's spring and valentines all rolled into one vintagey fun card. Hope you find it inspiring! This typewriter die is going to get used a lot. So many looks, and ideas. Yeah. Love it. Have a wonderful week – see you soon! XOXO

CLICK HERE or on the graphic below to see the supplies used for today's project. (Affiliate Links Used)

February 3, 2020
Catherine Pooler Hello Sunshine Collection!

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! I hope you had a fun weekend! I got in lots of crafty time and relaxation. Not too much going on around here actually. The weather has been amazing lately. I'm looking forward to a good week. Getting my hair done and meeting up with some friends…Tuesdays Together Meetup, Crocheting… Good stuff. Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you have an awesome week!

For today's post I'm featuring the brand new, gorgeous, Hello Sunshine Collection from Catherine Pooler Designs! I was sent this awesome collection as part of my design work for Scrapbook.com. I'm new to Catherine Pooler products and I can honestly say everything was wonderful! (I did an unboxing video you can find over on my Instagram Stories). The patterned paper is GORGEOUS and thick! Wow, so unusual to see cardstock weight patterned paper in 6×6 size. Love that. The stamps were perfect and crisp right out of the package and the dies cut a nice edge. I would definitely recommend these products. Maybe you will check them out too! I'm looking forward to trying out other collections.

I made a fun, colorful, summer card! This card makes me smile. Lots of ice cream colors and lots of layers…and ICE CREAM! The finished card is A2 size and a white card base.

The focus of my card is that adorable ice cream truck image! It's really cute and so fun to color. You could make it so many different color combinations! I chose Copic shades to match the colors in the plaid paper. My layers here are: White card base, dark pink printed paper, plaid paper, vellum, white stitched rectangle, and green paper stitched circle. Whew. Yes, I love me some layers!

I stamped the sentiment onto a stitched rounded rectangle and used the Catherine Pooler Inks for all the stamping. I used a few pretty pink sequins as accents.

I thought you might want to see what the sequin mix looks like! It's sooooo pretty! I can't wait to make a shaker card with it!

I stamped a second ice cream truck and then cut out a second ice cream cone and a second awning. I put them over the other ones for dimension. This is a fun trick I use a lot – selective dimension is what I call it.

Stay cool my friends!!

Thanks for following along with me! I hope you're inspired to check out the pretty collections from Catherine Pooler!! CLICK HERE for the supply links for today, or click the graphic below. (Affiliate Links Used). Have a fantastic week! See you soon! XOXO

July 8, 2019
Love. Peace. Craft. Fun card with Picket Fence Studios!

Hey everyone! Happy Monday! Hope you had a marvelous weekend! My weekend was full of crafty good times! Yeah! I had so much fun at the Stamp and Scrapbook Expo on Friday! Mark came with me and then we met up with some old friends for a yummy pizza before driving home. We finally watched our DVD of Bohemian Rhapsody. SO GOOD! Then some of my crafty friends came to visit Sacramento on Saturday and we spent all day together talking about stamping, and yarn, and we ate yummy food together. Sunday was a catch up day in the studio and at home. And here we are… March 4th! Dang. It’s still raining buckets here and I’ll be happy for a reprieve soon. It’s been too much and communities are flooding and everything is soaked. We need a bit of sunshine!

One of the things I’m going to start doing more on the blog is featuring my favorite companies with projects and supplies. Today I’m going to feature the awesome Picket Fence Studios. Do you have any Picket Fence Studio stamps?? I think you should! They are super unique and artistic and clever and fun. Some are silly too. I love this company! Over the weekend I had the pleasure of meeting the owner – Nicole Petersen – in person, at the Stamp Show. She was just as lovely and spunky as I knew she would be. And she gives a good hug. Please visit Picket Fence Studios by CLICKING HERE! One of the newest stamps is a kitty cat taking a selfie! Love it. (And there is always FREE SHIPPING in the US!)

Today I’m sharing a card made with the Karen Girl Stamp and the Crafty Mail Stamp set. The girl looks like me! (in my younger days)! She’s holding a camera and has her hair up in a messy bun. I’m also using a blended background I made with the AMAZING “Life Changing Blender Brushes” that are sold by Picket Fence. These are so cool!! You need a set! I’ll talk about them more, later in my post.

I stamped the Karen Girl stamp onto watercolor paper using Versafine Ink and my MISTI for a good impression. I colored her using my favorite Mijello water color palette. Then I used a stitched rectangle die to cut out the panel. The card base is size A2 in Kraft cardstock. The heart was left over from my Valentine Card project!

I am obsessed with this sentiment stamp! I love the font, the size, the saying. Everything. I stamped the sentiment onto a vellum strip using Stazon Ink. When I assembled my card I wrapped the vellum strip around the inked layer and the stamped layer before attaching them to the card base.

Now, these blender brushes…. OOH LA LA. They are like buttah. Say it out loud! LOL. Seriously, buttah. I used them with three colors of distress ink to ink up this pretty background panel. They blend like magic! I’m sure they are made from Unicorn hair! What a cool new tool to have in the studio to work with. After the panel was ink blended, I splattered water onto it and also white ink.

The heart was put onto the card with foam tape. I love all these colors together. Very fun and artsy I do think!

The Crafty Mail stamp set has this awesome stamp in it too! #staycrafty – Perfect for the back of the envelope for this card. I always love a good crafty stamp set. CLICK HERE to see this one!

Okay friends – stay crafty! Until I see you again! LOTS of good stuff coming up later in the week!! I hope you have a wonderful day. Thanks for stopping by! Please visit Picket Fence Studios too! Tell ’em Wanda sent ya. XOXO

SUPPLIES FOR TODAY!

(Affiliate Links Used)

March 4, 2019
Pretty Peonies from Spellbinders artist Stephanie Low!

Hi friends! Happy Monday! Are you ready to be creative this week? I am for sure! And it's Valentine's week so there's love in the air too! I hope you had a good weekend. I rested and did some crocheting. Most of our plans were for outside and everything got cancelled because of the rain. That's okay though. We need the water, and I never mind a rainy day. Actually rainy days are my favorite days. Here's to a great week!

Today I'm excited to share a project made with the brand new stamp release from Spellbinders, and Artist Stephanie Low. I am the guest designer today over on the Spellbinders blog! Please CLICK HERE to head over and share some love there too! BIG thanks to the crew at Spellbinders for inviting me to be a guest with them. I'm happy for this fun opportunity. My card is a super bright floral creation made with the beautiful new Large Peonies stamp set and watercolors. Spellbinders has recently merged with Fun Stampers Journey so I used products from both companies.

I love to water color flowers. That's my favorite thing to water color actually. This finished card is an A2 size, made with a kraft card base. I layered pretty bright pink paper and then a layer of watercolor paper and then those pretty blooms!

To start this card, I stamped several blooms and leaves onto watercolor paper. I colored them with vivid shades of pinks and greens and let them dry. I used the awesome Lots of Dots Background Die Cut and watercolor paper to create the dotted background. Then I added a wash of blue watercolor paint. I set that aside to dry also.

The sentiment was heat embossed with gold embossing powder onto a strip of vellum. I wrapped the vellum around the dots layer before I assembled the rest of the card.

Here are my step out photos! After the flowers were colored, I added paint splatters and white paint splatters. All these pieces are watercolor paper.

To put the card together, I layered the hot pink onto the kraft base. Then I wrapped the vellum around the dots layer. This part was attached with foam tape. Then the flowers and leaves were added, also with foam tape. One of my very favorite FSJ products is the Rainbow Drops. OMG I just look at them on my desk and they make me so happy!!! I'm trying to use them and not hoard them, so I added a sprinkling of the pretty blue drops onto my card.

Thanks for stopping by today! THANK YOU to Spellbinders for having me as a guest today! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Get crafty! Have a Happy Valentine's Day! (I have one more heart themed card, so I'll be back on Thursday to share it!) XOXO

February 11, 2019
Your Friendship Warms My Heart!

Hi crafty friends and Happy Monday! I hope you had a most delightful winter weekend! We have been very busy – that's how December is right? Going, going, going all the time! I love it though. There are so many fun things to do! Craft shows, lights, shopping, coffee, friends… It's awesome. This weekend we went to a beautiful barn market not too far from our house, and I'll share some photos of it at the bottom of my post, after the card. I loooove stuff like that! Being outside on a beautiful winter day, seeing the handmade goods. I'm going to wrap up the rest of my Christmas cards this coming week I think. Time to start the process of addressing and mailing them out. (I'm bad at that part)!

Now, on for my card for the day. I COULD NOT WAIT TO SHARE THIS!!! OMG these new stamps from Concord & 9th called "Winter Wear" are maybe the most adorable stamps everrrr. I was smitten like a mitten right away! I bought them and had them sitting on my desk when I woke up one night at 2am with an idea! Ha! So that next morning I stamped and colored and tried again until I was able to execute my idea. I'll explain later! Here's the finished card…

These stamps!! Oh gosh, how much fun to make this card! The face, the scarf, the hat and the glasses are all different stamps so you can mix and match. There are two girl faces and several other accessories – so you can make it however you want. I love it when I can customize things. So I made this girl to look like me! She has glasses…and she loves buffalo plaid and she's wearing a snowflake pin – just like me! So the idea that woke me up at 2am was that she needed a buffalo plaid scarf! This scarf stamp is NOT checkered. I did that with my Copic Markers. Yes, it took a while, but I love the result!

This card started with an A2 card base is vivid Christmas red! I layered vellum and then kraft paper. On the vellum paper I splattered Copic Opaque White with a toothbrush to look like snow flurries. On the kraft layer, I used the Concord & 9th Swirls Dies to make snow swirls. Then I stamped snowflakes in white over that. Finally, I used sponge and white ink to go around the top edges.

I stamped and die cut the pieces out and colored them all with markers. Then I heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder onto black paper. I like that look on a sentiment. It makes it pop! In this photo you can see all the layers.

For accents I added some die cut snowflakes and pearls. I also added a bit of glitter shimmer to the brim and pom pom on the hat. It's frosty out there, you know! One of my signature pieces during winter is to wear a snowflake brooch. I have two that I love and I wear them all the time. So I die cut a tiny snowflake and made her (me!) a brooch.

Supplies for this card are at the bottom of my post! You're going to want these fun stamps and dies I know it! Endless combinations of fun cards for gal pals!! Can't wait to make some more! IN the photo below you can where I got my ideas! LOL. Mark took this photo at the Barn Market on Friday. My new haircut is kinda short but I'm happy and that's what matters. XOXO

Here are a few photos I took at the H3 Barn Market on Friday. It's in Rescue California, which isn't too far from my house. Mark and I had a delightful time there! So peaceful and beautiful. The vendors were great and so so talented. The weather was perfect. It reminded us of an old fashioned Christmas – lovely! Big shout out to Laura, the proprietor, for creating something so special. I can't wait to go back.

I hope you have the best, blessed, happy, fun and creative week ahead! XOXO

December 3, 2018