Today's card uses a fantastic set I stumbled upon at Simon Says Stamp. It is called Fantastic Flowers and when I purchased it (on sale!) it came with stamps, dies AND a stencil set. Now, that's winning. Currently only the stencils and dies are available. I've been watching oodles of Jennifer McGuire videos and she's done so much ink blending through stencils that the technique called my name. 

I first stamped the palm frond stem in Versamark on Hammermill 80lb white cardstock (later I glued this to a 110lb Neenah Solar White Classic Crest piece after they were both die cut - gave it some real heft). I also stamped the Happy Birthday from Simon Says Stamp's Circle Sayings Stamp set in Versamark. I used my Ink on Three Gold Rush gold embossing powder (five stars, highly recommend) to heat emboss both images. Next, I put down the stencil and blended Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Picked Raspberry, Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, Faded Jeans and Chipped Sapphire together. I was thrilled with the results and I know I will make more because it was so fun. (A thanks to Cathy Zielske or I would never have thought to do the stem before the stenciling but it worked perfectly). 

I used the matching die to cut the stenciled image and a "shadow" from Stampin' Up's Berry Burst cardstock. I glued both these down onto 110lb Neenah cardstock. I die cut the circle saying with a circle die from Trinity Stamps and popped it up with some foam tape. The wonderful hole-free sequins are in a brushed gold and from Spellbinders. Pretty simple card that was really fun to make.

I'm going to enter this at Paper Players Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge PP731. I think it meets the criteria of sentiment, lavender, and glitter. 

I hope to get back here with more cards but I know I will post more on my Instagram too. Thanks for reading this and happy crafting. 

If this card looks familiar it’s because it is a carefully made CASE of a card posted by the uber talented Martin Stone of @martinmayhem on February 4. His blog post on it is here. Instagram post is here.

You’ve probably had it happen to you where you see something and HAVE TO make it. I went so far as to get the retired stamp and die set, called Happiness Abounds, off eBay (very reasonable price, thank goodness) in order to make this card. Since then I have made other cards with the stamps and dies. I think if I were stuck on a deserted island with my craft supplies I'd take this stamp and die set with me, it's so good. 

One game-changing idea I learned from Martin’s Mayhem is how to alter a diecut to better match the color of your card. When you stamp an image on white cardstock, color it, and die cut it, you end up with a white outline around the image. Sometimes it works with your design and sometimes the white is just too stark. On this card, Martin colored the white outline with alcohol ink markers to fit in better with his card. Now I've started doing that (I used watercolor here) and I'm loving the results.

I stamped the flowers from Happiness Abounds (retired) on watercolor cardstock with black Distress Archival Ink and watercolored the inside of the images with Zig Clean Color Real Brush markers (I know Dull Blue was one of the colors). I used a waterbrush with Fossilized Amber Distress Ink to color the leaves, and then with Misty Moonlight ink to color the outside edge of the images, just before I die cut them. After this, I splattered the image with white ink. Specifically, I used Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White ink. I am splatter-impaired and both the black and white ink from Dr. Ph. Martin's allows me to use a small paintbrush to make tiny splatters with NO giant blobs falling on my paper. It dries super fast and I think I am "cured" from my impairment. 

I stamped the sentiment from another amazing SU stamp set called Good Feelings with black Memento ink onto 80lb white cardstock, and used one of the dies in the Happiness Abounds stamp set to get the spiral notebook edge at the top.

I assembled it to copy his card as best I could, adding lots of different bling when I was done. I was very happy with the results. Thanks, Martin. 

What I've used here :

Cardstock: Watercolor paper, 80lb Hammermill Premium Color Copy Cover, Stampin’ Up! Misty Moonlight

Stamps: Happiness Abounds (plus matching dies), Good Feelings, both by Stampin' Up!

Ink: Distress Archival Ink in Black Soot, Memento Black Tuxedo Ink, Distress Ink Fossilized Amber

Other: Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers, Dr. Ph. Martin's Pen-White ink for white splatter.

My last September dog card celebrating the season of Halloween and trick-or-treaters.

Here are all the supplies I used for the three cards:

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cover stock, Stampin’ Up! Basic Black, Soft Suede (retired), Hello Honey (r), Pumpkin Pie.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Stamps by Judith & Heather - Scruffy Pup, Trick-or-Treat Pumpkin, all tiny “stubby” stamps; Sentiments - Happy Halloween from SU’s And Many More, Autumn Greetings from Autumn Wreath set by Pretty Pink Posh

Patterned Paper: All from My Favorite Things

Die: Mini Slimline Stitched Layers by Popsiclesticks (Etsy store)

Markers: Mostly Copic, a few are Spectrum Noir.

Embellishment: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, black gel pen to add movement lines

These were fun to make, except for the fussy cutting it took to make itty bitty leaf and candy corn masks.

I am entering all three cards in the Sept 11 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Four Legged Friends, the Tic Tac Toe 256 Challenge, and the As You Like It Challenge. 

My second Halloween Doggy Card is featured here. 

Here are all the supplies I used:

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cover stock, Stampin’ Up! Basic Black, Soft Suede (retired), Hello Honey (r), Pumpkin Pie.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Stamps by Judith & Heather - Scruffy Pup, Trick-or-Treat Pumpkin, all tiny “stubby” stamps; Sentiments - Happy Halloween from SU’s And Many More, Autumn Greetings from Autumn Wreath set by Pretty Pink Posh

Patterned Paper: All from My Favorite Things

Die: Mini Slimline Stitched Layers by Popsiclesticks (Etsy store)

Markers: Mostly Copic, a few are Spectrum Noir.

Embellishment: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, black gel pen to add movement lines

These were fun to make, except for the fussy cutting it took to make itty bitty leaf and candy corn masks.

I am entering all three cards in the Sept 11 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Four Legged Friends, and the Tic Tac Toe C256 Challenge and the As You Like It Challenge. 

I am back with not one, but three cards all for Autumn and Halloween. In between working on birthday and Christmas cards, I’ve continued to play with my Stamps by Judith & Heather. I enjoy adding layers to even a flat design as I just love the dimension and "shadow" it adds to a card. 

Here are all the supplies I used:

Cardstock: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb cover stock, Stampin’ Up! Basic Black, Soft Suede (retired), Hello Honey (r), Pumpkin Pie.

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Stamps: Stamps by Judith & Heather - Scruffy Pup, Trick-or-Treat Pumpkin, all tiny “stubby” stamps; Sentiments - Happy Halloween from SU’s And Many More, Autumn Greetings from Autumn Wreath set by Pretty Pink Posh

Patterned Paper: All from My Favorite Things

Die: Mini Slimline Stitched Layers by Popsiclesticks (Etsy store)

Markers: Mostly Copic, a few are Spectrum Noir.

Embellishment: Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher, black gel pen to add movement lines

These were fun to make, except for the fussy cutting it took to make itty bitty leaf and candy corn masks.

I am entering all three cards in the Sept 11 Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge featuring Four Legged Friends, and the Tic Tac Toe C256 Challenge. I am also entering the autumn themed card in the Sept 5 As You Like It Challenge.