Big Blooms Birthday for CH137

Hello friends!  We have a new challenge over at Color Hues starting today and the lovely Nancy is stepping in as host for Jules, who is still deep in unpacking after a move.  Jules chose a beautiful and dramatic color combination.

Color Hues

I'm also playing along with the Anything Goes portion of the current Seize the Birthday Challenge.

STB #330

For my card, I went with a stamp and stencil combination.  The stamp creates the background and outlines of the flowers and leaves.

I really love the dramatic effect of a dark background, so when I saw Jule's color choices, I knew I would be using this set.  

The first step was to stamp the image.  I used black pigment ink for the best coverage and still had to stamp it at least 3 times to achieve that.  I let it dry overnight and then used the stencils to color the flowers in three shades of red, then a gold gel pen for the top of the stamen.  

The stamped image is 5.5" square but I trimmed it down close to 4.75" square, and then mounted it on a 4.75" x 5.5" card base.  To pull in more gold, I used two skinny strips of matte gold on the top and bottom of the panel, then added the sentiment.   I tried adding some gold confetti sequins but it made it too busy for my taste, so no bling!

Thanks for taking time to visit and please take a moment to visit the challenge blog where my oh, so talented teammates and two guest designer, Joanne James and Julia Aston, have some amazing inspiration for you!  The challenge will remain open until Wednesday July 29th at 9am EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• C&9/Kristina Werner Aubrey Blooms Background Stamp and Stencil set
• Spellbinders You Are Everything Betterpress plate and die
• SSS Strips die
• Altenew Gold gel pen
• Barn Door, Lumberjack Plaid and Aged Mahogany Distress Inks

La Dolce Vita Birthday for PP794

Hello friends!  It's time for a new challenge at the Paper Players and this week the amazing Jaydee is hosting.  This is color week and Jaydee has chosen a gorgeous combination.

Paper Players

My card uses products that have been languishing in my unused bin, so I'll be sharing this at Darnell's NBUS challenge.

NBUS

I'm also joining the Anything Goes option at Seize the Birthday and the Summer Vibe challenge at Inkspirational.

STB #330

Inkspirational #371

I had so much fun creating the first card that I ended up making two.

I started by cutting the lemons, flowers and leaves from colored cardstock that coordinated with Jaydee's challenge colors and then enhanced them with some ink blending.  

The embossed background was made using Shortbread cardstock from Concord & 9th.  It appears a lot lighter in the photos - in person it is the yummiest warm color between ivory and light yellow.  It was trimmed down and added to a black matte.

The sentiments are from a coordinating Betterpress set, which I inked up in black then used the coordinating dies to cut them out.  As someone who doesn't speak Italian, I always thought ciao was goodbye, but learned it can also mean hello.  So the greeting reads hello beautiful and I like the versatility of that.  Paired with the sub greeting above, I can use it for a birthday or many other occasions.

For the second card, I kind of when overboard with the flowers lol! 

This time I die cut everything from white cardstock then ink blended them for a slightly different look.  I used the same embossed background but added the arch panel as a landing spot for all the die cuts.  The sentiment is from the same Betterpress set and I finished this off with a few opal gems.  

Do you have a favorite?  I like them both, but I like the look of the ink blending on white for card #2 a bit better.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Be sure to take a moment to visit the challenge blog, my talented teammates have some amazing cards using these colors in a variety of ways.  The challenge will remain open until July 17th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

Card #1

• Spellbinders Citrus Spritz die set
• SB La Dolce Vita Betterpress plate and die
• SB Lemon Fresco embossing folder
• SB Blush, Tutu and Rainforest cardstock
• C&9 Buttercup and Shortbread cardstock

Card #2 (same die and sentiment sets, and embossing folder)

• SB Essential Arch die
• Simon Says Stamp Shell, Salmon, Coral, Guava, Watermelon, Limelicious and Pearfection inks
• SB Opal gems

Wedding Congratulations for PP793

Hello friends!  For those of you in the US, I hope you enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July celebration.  My husband and I sat in front of our house, along with some neighbors and watched all the fireworks that were being set off around us.  Loud, but pretty chill.

But now, onto the business of a new challenge at the Paper Players!  It's the amazing and lovely Ann's turn to host and she has come up with a wonderful theme to inspire you.

Paper Players

This theme came at a perfect time.  My dear friend recently got married in June and this is the wedding card I created for she and her new husband. 

My friend loves lace so of course I pulled out some of the last remnants of long retired Stampin' Up! lace trim (think 2013!).  I settled on using the beautiful Butterfly Ranunculus Layering die set from Altenew, which includes all three flowers and the leaves on the card.  Originally it was going to be an A7 card, but I settled on 4.5" x 6", which was more proportional.  

The flowers and leaves were cut from white cardstock, then colored with ink blending.  Gold centers looked elegant and coordinated with the foiled congratulations sentiment.  I cut a panel for the background that was a bit on the peachy side, so I lightly ink blended a dark pink around the edges before adhering the embossed panel.  I used glue behind the solid parts of the lace design in order to add it to the embossed section, then added the flowers with foam squares and tucked the leaves underneath.  I did finish things off with a few pearls but that was a last-minute decision which didn't get photographed.  

Thanks so much for taking time to stop by and I encourage you to head over to the challenge blog for some gorgeous inspiration from my talented teammates.  The challenge will remain open until Friday, July 10th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll have a chance to play along!

Stef

• Altenew Butterfly Ranunculus Layering Die set
• Spellbinders Petite Tufted embossing folder
• Spellbinders Betterpress Fancy Sentiments plate and die
• Altenew Strawberry, Raspberry Sunset, Matcha Tea and Reindeer Moss ink

You Rock! for Color Hues

Hello, my friends!  Can you believe half the year is gone by already? I can almost hear the wind whistling in my ears as the year seems to be flying by lol!

Anyway, let's get down to business.  It's time for a new challenge at Color Hues and the amazing Julie is hosting.  She's chosen a lovely color combination.

Color Hues

These colors would work beautifully for a wedding or anniversary card, but I decided to go a different direction.  Take a look!

Once again, I am filling the need of masculine birthday cards.  This one, with the Retro Radio from Concord & 9th went to my nephew Ron a while back. When he was young, he and my sister lived with my parents and me for a time.  My mom had an old cream-colored radio she always listened to during the day, which inspired this card.  He and I both had a good time reminiscing about that memory on his birthday.

The radio components were die cut from glossy black, matte gold and off-white cardstock.  The music notes are also part of the die set.  The You Rock sentiment, heat embossed in gold and off-set layered on black, is from the coordinating stamp set.  

All the components were super easy to put together but I felt like the card needed a little something more. I die cut a frame from both gold and black, and, as you can see the black won out. It seemed to bring it all together better. I know I'll be making at least two more cards with this die set for each of my BILs, so it may make an appearance in a future post.

Thanks for taking time to visit!  I encourage you to visit the challenge blog, where my talent teammates have some beautiful inspiration for you.  The challenge will remain open until Tuesday, July 14th at 9am EDT.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Concord & 9th Retro Radio Stamps and Dies
• Simon Says Stamp A2 Nesting Frames die
• SSS Glossy Black and Matte Gold cardstock
• Neenah Natural White cardstock

Toucan Birthday for PP792

Hello friends!  I'm here with my card for the new sketch challenge at the Paper Players.  This week the fabulous Joanne is hosting and has given us a wonderful sketch.

Paper Players

I'm also joining the Anything Goes portion of the current Seize the Birthday challenge.

STB #329

I had recently attended The Weekender Goes Wild retreat and created a card with some of the products.  I did take some liberties with the sketch, but I'll explain that below.

The retreat is all about tropical animals and environments.  This is Tiki Toucan and the branch upon which she is sitting, which extends across the panel and has vines and flowers hanging from it, represents the horizontal strip in the sketch and the larger leaf and flower on the left represents the heart.  Unfortunately, I had to move the sentiment up above so it wouldn't cover up many of the flowers and vines.

I started by die cutting all the parts of Tiki, along with all the other elements, from colored cardstock.  Since I'd already used the toucan twice in the class, putting her together was easy.  I did find a Toucan reference photo on the internet and the one with a similarly colored beak had blue feet!  So, of course I had to use that. ;-)

For the background I used the Tropicana Texture embossing folder. It is sized at 5.5" x 8.5" and creates two different A2 patterns, which is so handy!  I used one half which was layered on a lighter piece of green cardstock, then all the scene elements were added, and I thought I was good.  Somehow, though, it looked unfinished to me, so I ended up layering it on a larger black panel, with the card ending up at 6.75" x 5". The black really made Tiki pop and I had a better place for the sentiment.  I love how this turned out, and I hope you don't mind how I riffed a bit on your sketch, Joanne!!

Thanks so much for visiting and I encourage you to visit the challenge blog to see how my amazing teammates used this sketch.  The challenge will remain open until Friday July 3rd at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• *Items from The Weekender Goes Wild 2026 Craft Kit.  The kit and the retreat (on video) is still available on the Spellbinders website.
• *Tiki Toucan die set
• *Jungle Blooms die set
• *Tropicana Texture embossing folder
• Spellbinders Just Add Cake sentiment set (from the Just Add Cake card kit)

Hello Sunshine for PP791

Hello friends!  Here we are on the first day of summer and it's time for a new challenge with the Paper Players.  The lovely Jan is hosting our CAS week and wants us to reflect weather on our cards.  However you interpret that, just be sure to keep it simple with lots of white space and minimal layers.

Paper Players

I was looking out the window the other day to brilliant blue skies with puffy clouds and that inspired me to create this card...

This card took me about 30 minutes to create. The clouds I left white but added a bit of ink blending to the yellow die cut sun.  I masked off the edges of the scallop panel, lightly added some yellow ink where I wanted the sun to be peeking out from behind the cloud, then used a large blending brush to softly add a light aqua to the rest of the sky.  

The sentiment was stamped then I layered the panel on two more die cut panels for a small amount of dimension on the card base.  The sun was adhered directly to the panel and the clouds with thin foam squares.  I was going to leave it at that, but I felt like it needed a bit of sparkle, so I added a few gems.

Thanks for taking time to stop by!  I encourage you to visit the challenge blog for some amazing inspiration by the rest of the design team.  The challenge will remain open until 3pm EDT on Friday, June 26th.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Spellbinders Sun and Clouds die set
• Hero Arts Nested Circle die (for the sun center)
• Honey Bee Stamps A2 Scallop die
• Simon Says Stamp Wild & Free Flowers sentiment stamp
• SSS Butter, Zest and Seafoam inks

Summer Flower for CH135

Hello friends!  My card today is for a new Color Hues challenge and this time the amazing Carol is hosting.  She's chosen a very striking color combination.

Color Hues

 

When I saw this color duo, the obvious choice seemed to be bees, which would be so fun, but then I remembered a NBUS press plate that I knew would work well, so I'm linking up to Darnell's NBUS challenge as well.

NBUS

And here's my card...

Isn't that a gorgeous sunflower design?  It was made using a press plate from Alex Syberia that I bought last summer.  My first attempt at creating the image was to use the Betterpress, inking up the plate with black pigment ink, which encompasses the background and the outline of the sunflower.  The image came out fine but not a sharp as I was hoping, so I went the foiling route, and that turned out better.

Using foil rather than pigment ink also allowed me to color the sunflower with my Copic markers, which I have been neglecting as of late. (having too much fun with dies!)  After coloring, the panel was trimmed down and mounted with foam tape onto a white panel die cut with a crimped edge A2 die, then added to the card base.  

The greeting is from a sentiment press plate set, also from AS and it was foiled in black as well, then cut out with the coordinating die.  I like this particular sentiment because it can be used for multiple occasions.  Keeping things simple, just three opal gems were added as embellishment to finish the card.

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by, I really appreciate it!  If you have another moment, I encourage you to visit the challenge blog for a peek at the fantastic inspiration my fabulous teamies and our guest designers Barbara Campbell and Diana Karlova have to share!  The challenge will remain open until 9 am EDT on Monday, June 29th.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef

• Alex Syberia Summer Flower Press Plate
• AS Essential Sentiments Press Plates and Dies
• Simon Says Stamp Crimped A2 rectangle die
• SSS Dazzling Opal gems
• Copics - YR27, 24, Y19, 15, 11, E29, 27, 25