Sending Hugs for CH139

Hello friends!  It's time for a new challenge at Color Hues and this time the lovely Marcia is hosting.  She's chosen a beautiful combination that can work for many designs.

Color Hues

I'm also joining the current Pick 2 challenge at Time Out Challenges. My picks are CAS and floral.  It's a maybe on monochromatic since I used 2 colors.

 

TOC #319

Originally, I had another card created and posted using these colors with die cuts, but decided to go another route and with some vibrant ink blending.  Take a look.

I was sorting through some older stamps and happened upon this oldie but goodie, and realized a silhouetted sunrise/sunset would look wonderful and it would be an easy make.

A panel of white cardstock was trimmed down to 3" x 4.25", then stamped along the bottom using black pigment ink.  When dry I used several Distress inks to create the background sky.  I thought I might use a black mat beneath and add to a white card base, but the drama of no white was too much to resist.

I think I spend more time trying to find a sentiment with the right words that were also sized appropriately.  Three gems finished things off.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope you'll take a moment to visit the challenge blog where my talented teammates and our wonderful guest designer Priscilla some have beautiful cards to inspire you.  The challenge will remain open until 9 am EDT Saturday August 29th.  I hope you'll join us!

Stef 

This is my second post today.  If you wish to see my first card, you can take a peek here or scroll down. 

• Impression Obsession Garden Silhouette stamp
• Altenew Evergreen Beauty Mini Stamp set
• Fossilized Amber, Mustard Seed, Scattered Straw, Spiced Marmalade, Carved Pumpkin and Wild Honey Distress inks
• Simon Says Stamp Warm Tones Dazzling gems

Chinese Lanterns for PP799

Hello friends!  This week at the Paper Players we have a new Clean and Simple challenge.  The lovely Claire is hosting and has added the theme of Looking Forward to Fall.  

Paper Players

For this card, I used three stamps that are oldies but goodies, two of which I've had for at least a decade.

The floral image includes both Chinese Lanterns and American Bittersweet.  When I first met my husband, he had a huge yard with so many plants I'd never seen before, including Chinese Lanterns.  They are a delight, with small white flowers in summer, then come fall, the orange lanterns develop and in that temperate zone (Vancouver, WA), they were fairly long lasting.  So, when I saw this stamp a few years later, I had to buy it.

It's illustrated by Marcella Hawley, the owner of Power Poppy.  She has an amazing garden that inspired her beautiful drawings.  While Power Poppy no longer appears to sell stamps, there are oodles of beautiful digital images for sale, including this one.

I colored everything using Copic and Altenew Artisan markers, including the addition of a bit of light blue around the image.  The sentiment is one of my favorites and so I made sure that oval die I used to cut out the panel had sufficient room for it.

On the orange panel I used a large background stamp from MFT to create a subtle tone on tone look.  I opted not to add any embellishments.

Thanks for taking time to stop by and I encourage you to pop over to the challenge blog to see all the amazing inspiration from the rest of the design team.  The challenge will remain open until Friday August 21st at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

PS if you're here early, come on back a later when my Color Hues DT post goes live.

• Power Poppy Sunny Harvest stamp set
• Stampingbella Autumn Sentiments stamp set
• MFT All Line Up Diagonally background stamp
• Spellbinders Essential Stylish Oval die

Cozy Up for PP798

Hello friends!  Today I'm hosting our new color challenge at the Paper Players, and I chose a color combination that I really like!  As a reminder, you may also use neutrals along with the challenge colors.

Paper Players

I'm also joining the current Anything Goes Die challenge at Just Us Girls.

JUGs #835

Initially, I chose these colors with a water or beach scene in mind but ended up going a completely opposite direction with my design, which just shows you that there are plenty of design options with these colors.

As I was preparing to make the card for this challenge, I received some items that I'd ordered from Spellbinders.  In that order was this darling reindeer, which was the club stitching die of the month for July 2026. At that point I realized I could use the challenge colors just as well for a Christmas card as a summer scene card.  So why not? ;-)

As the name suggests, there are dies are made for stitching - the scarf as well as the sweater front.  But rather than stitch, I used a white paint pen to create faux stitching.  I don't mind the idea of actual stitching, but I don't have the right needles or floss...yet lol!  

All the deer parts and pieces were die cut from colored cardstock with the exception of metallic cardstock for the strings of lights wrapped around his (her?) antlers.  Everything went together so easy although the strings of lights were a bit fiddly to wrap around the antlers.  Rather than die cut the cheeks, I used a light red Copic marker to create some color in the embossed cheek area on the face.  The set also has either a gift or a coffee cup for the reindeer to hold.  I chose the coffee cup because it seemed perfect for the sentiment I used.  A white paint pen was then utilized to add polka dots.  

The ivory embossed panel was matted on a red A2 panel, then adhered to the card base.  The last step was to use foam tape to pop up both the reindeer and sentiment.  I think he's adorable!

Thanks for visiting, I appreciate it!  I encourage you to take and moment and visit the challenge blog to see the fabulous cards with a variety of designs created by the rest of the design team.  The challenge will remain open until Friday August 14th at 3pm EDT.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Stef

• Spellbinders Sweater Weather Friend Stitching Die OTM - July 2026
• SB Spectacular Holiday Sentiments Stamp
• SB Festive Greetings Embossing Folder OTM - July 2026
• SSS Sentiment Label die
• Posca 0.7mm white paint pen

Let's Party for PP797

Hello friends!  It's the first Sunday of August and that means a new theme challenge at the Paper Players.  This time the fabulous Jan is hosting and has chosen a delightful theme.

Paper Players

I'm also sharing with Darnell's NBUS challenge as this is the first outing for the main stamp and die set I used in today's card and joining in with the Anything Goes option of the Seize the Birthday challenge.

NBUS

STB #331

The newest little in our family is our great niece, and she is a cutie patootie!  She turned two in mid-July and I had So.Much.Fun. making this card for her birthday!

I started out with Lawn Fawn's stamp and die set that came out last year for Stamptember at Simon Says Stamp.  It has all the kitties and much of the other parts, but I also grabbed two older LF stamps from my collection to add the balloons, the cute bird, the hearts and one of the sentiment bubbles.  

I decided on a color palette (other than the critters) of pink, aqua, yellow and lime green.  I used my Copic markers to color everything, then out came the white gel pen to add some polka dots and stripes on the balloons and some of the packages.

I was trying to decide what type of scene to make with all these critters and thought it would be a fun design to use one of the postage collage A2 dies to create frames for little vignettes.  I went with the A2 size, which is 3 7/8" x 5 1/8" and it was die cut 3 times and stacked for dimension. 

Distress inks were softly blended on a panel of white for the background, which was trimmed down to the same size as the frame before adhering.  Most of the images were popped up on foam squares.  Before adding to the card base, I ink blended pink around the edges. Lastly, I added Glossy Accents to the balloons, Stickles to a couple of the party hat pompoms and lots of sparkle with a shimmer pen to many of the items.  

Thanks so much for visiting!  I encourage you to take a moment and head over to the Paper Players, where my amazing teammates have some super cute cards to inspire you.  The challenge will remain open until Friday, August 7th at 3pm EDT.  I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Stef

• Lawn Fawn/SSS Purrfect Birthday stamps and dies (no longer available but LF has oodles of similarly cute sets available).
• LF Happy Birthday Deer stamps and dies
• LF Hippo Birdie to You stamps and dies
• Waffle Flower Postage Collage A2 Block die
• Kitsch Flamingo, Twisted Citron and Salvaged Patina Distress Inks
• Stardust Stickles, Tonic Shimmer pen and Ranger Glossy Accents
• Copics - BG11, 13, RV 02, 04, Y00, 11, 15, YG05, 01, T1, 2, 3, 4, YR14, 16 18, Black

Merry Christmas for CH138

Hello friends!  Today marks the beginning of a new challenge at Color Hues!  This time the lovely Karen is hosting and has chosen a beautiful color combination.

Color Hues

Thinking I wanted to create at holiday card with the color combo, I envisioned a stamped image with ink blending in the background.  But then I happened upon a small stamp set that I received 2-3 years ago as a gift with purchase and changed course with my plan, although I still made a card for Christmas.

As soon as I spotted that sweet little bird opening its gift, I knew I had to create with it.  Because it's a mini stamp, I created a mini scene.

After stamping the image I started with the night sky, using a lighter blue Copic around the bird and package and create the "snow" line, intentionally making it a bit bumpy like snow would be.  Two other blue markers were used to create the dark part of the sky then I blended them into the lighter portion.  After coloring the bird and package, I used a gold gel pen to color the ribbon and the stars on the package, then white splatter was used to create a light snow.  

The scene was cut with a small, notched corner rectangle then I use the same die and a smaller one to create a gold frame.  The background panel was created with a larger notched rectangle die, then embossed with a snowflake folder.  Everything was layered on a panel of navy, including the foiled sentiment.  The final touch was to add three gold stars in the sky, just because the left corner seemed a little bare.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you'll take a moment to head over to the challenge blog to see the fabulous creations by the rest of the design team and our wonderful guest designer, Rachel Ball.  The challenge will remain open until Friday August 14th at 9 am EDT.  I hope to see your card in the gallery!

Stef

• Colorado Craft Company/Anita Jeram Thoughtfulness Bird (CCC doesn't carry AJ products anymore but I saw many CCC/AJ sets on Ebay.)
• Simon Says Stamp A2 Notched Rectangle dies
• Spellbinders Comfort and Joy Sentiments Foil Plates & dies (ret).
• SB Sparkling Snow embossing folder