Bouquet of Note Cards

The early spring here is so inspiring.  My flowering crab trees that usually don't bloom until Mother's Day are full of blossoms and there are new green shoots and flowers everywhere you look.  So I was inspired to make a set of note cards.  I saw this card sketch several places online recently and thought it would work great with the flower dies.  Here's the "bouquet":

The backgrounds for the peony and tulip cards were created using the method I used on the February 10th post - stamping in versamark and swiping with Distress ink.  The backgrounds were all cut with rectangle nesting dies.  I just used scraps of cardstock and patterned cardstock to create the flowers.

Here's the tulip card:

Supplies:

• Aloe note card
• Background under Tulips - Vintage Dreams G1842 - Ink Pumice Stone
• Wishing You Combo B1853
• Dancing Tulips Die 98295
• Tulip Petals Die 98317
• Distress Spun Sugar to sponge tulip edges

Here's the fuchsia card:

Supplies:

• Raspberry note card
• Background Vintage Dreams G1842 Stamped and sponged in Bundled Sage
• Just a Note Combo B1852 stamped with VersaMark, embossed with white powder
• Fuchsia Sprig Die 98303

Peonies card:

Supplies:

• Cotton Candy note card
• Background - Poppy Stamps Ring Background G254 (with Pumice Stone ink)
• Wishing You Combo B1853
• Wild Blooms Die 98315 (I cut an extra Wild Blooms for placement of petals.  I glued through the openings and place the petals in the opening, peeling up to make sure my "stencil" didn't stick.)

Blue Poppy Card:

Supplies:

• Slate note card
• Viola 6x6 for Background
• Just a Note Combo B1852
• Prim Poppy Die 91310 (Petals sponged with chalk)

Hope you're inspired by nature to make something pretty!  Happy Stamping!

Inspired by Violets

  Do you ever get the bug to rearrange your furniture?  It happened to me last week--suddenly.  So when no one was home I changed the livingroom furniture to a completely new arrangement that I loved except for the piano---I just couldn't move it myself--so it sat in it's old location until...my son came by!

 Mission accomplished--the piano was shifted to the opposite side of the room and the rearranging began again---with his help...tables changed rooms, nick-nacks were stashed away and lamps were swapped from different rooms.  

 The long neglected indoor plants were spruced up or sent outside to the "intensive care" area (patio).  My African Violet plant from the kitchen cleaned up nicely so it found a place in the "new" livingroom...on the piano.  It's deep purple flowers and velvety leaves were so beautiful and became my color inspiration for this card to share with you all.  

Anyone else get the bug to change things up in the house?  You never know when or where inspiration will strike---even when moving furniture!

Materials:

Mercer Rose Wreath Stamp (D1840)

Mercer Rose Wreath Die (98322)

Wishing You Combo (B1853)

Fancy Blossoms Die (98312)

DIES-SCALLOPED (98247)

JWL-JUICY (15504)

6x6-VIOLA Paper (10155)

 

Happy Friday!

 

Thank You

Spring is definitely in the air. Our weather is fluctuating between warm, cold, rainy, blustery... So I decided to use the beautiful new springy papers and colors to create a circular thank you card.

Recipe:

1. Die cut white frame.
2. Cut circle using three of the papers from the beautiful Viola collection. Cut into thirds.
3. Piece together the three pieces. on white circle. Distress edges of all pieces using distressing tool. Sponge with white acrylic paint.
4. Die cut the beautiful butterfly using the Kaleidoscope and Moonlight Butterfly.  Stamp the beautiful Mercer Rose background using soft lilac dye ink. Sponge the outline with the same dye ink.  
5. Stamp the beautiful dogwood wreath on white cardstock. Color with watercolor pencils. Accent with white gel pen.
6. Assemble and accent with white silk ribbon.

Have a lovely day!

Suzz

Springtime

 

There is something about the dogwoods blooming that just whispers spring is coming. The sun is shining bright, the air stills has a bit of a chill but you can smell the green growing. Do you know what I mean?

My card today is all about the dogwood. I cut a piece of white card stock down to 4 X 5.25. I diecut a circle. I placed it on top of my base green card. I stamped Dogwood Branch (F1847) with black ink. I stamped the dogwood branch again on scrap paper  and colored it with copic markers.I glittered the dogwood blossom. (click on the picture to see the glitter better) I cut out the blossom and leaves. I stamped Mercer Rose Background (G1842) with Momentos new sprout ink. I stamped the saying Miracles of Springtime (B1766) with black ink. I tied some pink bakers twine and adhered it to the base caed with foam tape. I placed the cut pieces on top of the stamped image with foam tape.

I liked this card so well, I tried it in another color, it is brighter and has a summer feel to it.

Which one do you like?

Happy creating!!!

 

Something Special

Another clean card using the beautiful Reverse Allium E1834.  I  used a scrap piece of sticky back canvas and stamped the Dream definition onto the surface with brown Stazon.  Then I stamped over that with the beautiful Allium.  I sponged over the surface with a touch of orange and brown dye ink. 

The flowers were touched up with a little bit of glitter.  The strip on the right was a remnant and was stamped with the definition stamp and sponged with the dye inks to coordinate. 

The sentiment was stamped on white cardstock and distressed to coordinate.

I poked two holes in my canvas to tie twine around the bottom of the image.

Hope you are having a fabulous week!

Suzz

Easter in the Garden

The new Classic Egg 98305 and Filigree Egg 98306 Dies team up to create delicate decorated eggs here.  The Classic Egg Die - with a punched circle and some petals from the Whimsy Circle Die 98154  for his ears and tail - becomes a chubby bunny to nestle in a patch of grass from the Poppystamps Grassland Border 825.

Glittering the Filigree Egg diecut is easy - just attach Scor-Tape to cardstock before diecutting it, then brush Twinkling Turquoise and Grape Fizz Glitter onto the adhesive.  Finish it off with Easter Joy B1763.

I love being able to use the dies in unexpected ways like these - exactly what we'll be doing in the Beyond the Box classes at Impress in April.  The new schedule will be out soon, and I'll be posting info on the Memory Box classes that Theresa Laurent and I will be teaching.

Here are 4 of the 5 designs from the Fresh for Spring class at the Bellevue Impress on Wednesday afteroon, March 28th. It's Stamper's Day at Impress on the 28th - so come a few minutes early to see the great project Carla and her team have for you, then join us for the class from 1:00 to 3:00.  

Read more...

First Robin of the Spring

Happy first day of spring to everyone!!   Ahhhh...I love this time of year.  Everything is so fresh, new, and green.

What better time to try something new.  For me, I finally tried my hand at making a round card.  I don't know what I was afraid of.  It really wasn't too difficult.  Although there are probably a few things I would do differently next time.

Today, I'm featuring the Leafy Branch Globe stamp (E1850).   I'm really drawn to stamps with a nature theme.  I just had to add a cute little robin to the branch in honor of this day.

The base of the card is die cut from Pea Pod paper.  I added a layer die cut from Wildbloom 12 X 12 paper from the new Viola collection.

The Leafy Branch Globe was inked up using Archival Coffee ink and stamped onto Parchment paper.  The image was colored with Ranger Distress Markers in Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint.  I used a waterbrush to blend the colors.

The little bird is actually from the Heaven Sings stamp (B1385).  Yep, it's a Christmas stamp, but it's one of those bonus stamps that Dave so wonderfully creates with a sentiment and image on the side of the stamp.  I just colored the bird with Distress Markers in Vintage Photo and a touch of Fired Brick and stamped it on the branch.  This image was distressed with Stormy Sky and Tumbled Glass Distress Inks using an ink blending tool and foam.

I die cut a strip of Lavender paper using the Sanibel border die (98178) and added that to the top of the card.  The final touch is seam binding ribbon that was dyed with Tumbled Glass and Brushed Corduroy Distress Inks.

Enjoy this beautiful day.....do something new today!

Spring Time Love!

Love is in this air with this spring card by Pat Holcomb, one of the teachers here at The Stamp Addict, in San Diego.

 

The used Memory Box's "Adore Peony Collage" (G1433) embossed in silver, then created pearlized paints with Tim Holtz Distress inks and Liquid Pearls.  She decorated the corners with Memory Box's Madera Corner (98237) and layered all that on a cuttlebug embossed layer of lilac cardstock on white on the dark purple cardbase. Add three clear gems to put a little extra bling on the card and Voila, you have something beautiful to send to someone speical!

Hope you enjoy!

 

Butterfly Note

Hello, everyone! It's so good to be back. I've been a little out of commission the last three weeks after the scare we had with my mom in the hospital (twice) and Gigi's i-Step testing, but everyone has survived, is on the mend, and is, I hope, trouble-free for the next few months!

I actually made this card back in January (for goodness sake) and then all heck broke loose around here. However, one of hte nice things about cards is that they keep - lol! This particular card is one of my personal favorites because it's simple yet not boring. (I can do simple but I'm constantly struggling withboring.) You can make several of these in one sitting to have on hand and then switch out the sentiment to suit the occasion. (You can probably churn out a dozen of these in less than an hour.)

S U P P L I E S

Memory Box Cardstock: (Vanilla Bean, Blueberry, Thistle, Chocolate Soiree Shimmer); Memory Box Patterned Paper: (Minuet and Pixie collections); Memory Box stamps: (Just a Note, Vintage Dreams); Memory Box Dies: (Darla Butterfly); Dye inks: (Onyx, Vintage Sepia) VersaFine; Accents: (buttons) Basic Grey; Fibers: (ribbon) Ribbon Boutique; Other: Pop-dots; Punches: EK Success; Tools: (Vagabond) Sizzix

I N S T R U C T I O N S

1. Make your card base.
2. Stamp Vintage Dreams on Bluberry, trim, mount, and layer with Vanilla Bean and Thistle panels; adhere lot to card.
3. Stamp Just a Note on Thistle, punch and adhere.
4. Die cut butterfly and adhere.
5. Tie ribbon into a bow and adhere. 

Although I didn't do it here, the front of the card could be dry embossed for a little extra doo-dah.

Thanks for stopping and have a blessed day!

Dandelions x 2

These cards were so easy, I thought I'd share two designs with the same stamp.  Hope that's okay. 

First up is the soft blue version

• Stamp E1834 Reverse Allium with white chalk ink on white cardstock. 
• Apply Pebbles Pearlescent Chalks to stamped image, avoiding dandelions if possible. 
• Buff image to remove excess chalk.  Spray with hair spray to set chalk. 
• Trim image and attach to Sky note card with foam tape

Here's version 2 (isn't it nice to have options)

• Ink E1834 Reverse Allium with Big & Juicy Sunset ink pad
• Stamp onto parchment card stock
• Place a piece of typing paper for a mask on left side of image
• (This gives you a straight edge when stamping the next image)
• Ink G1838 Vintage Dreams text background with VersaMark over top of typing paper
• Remove mask and sprinkle on white embossing powder over text and emboss
• Trim image and mat with parchment card stock
• Using foam tape for dimension, place on Wisteria note card

Sometimes the solid stamps can be a little intimidating, so I wanted to share some easy ideas with you for using this stamp. 

The weather here has been in the 70's the past couple of days so it was nice playing with spring colors.   I think maybe we're skipping Spring and heading directly to Summer. 

Happy Stamping!