Time for Valentines!

Hello friends!  I finished making and mailing my grandchildren's Valentine cards and thought I'd share them with three challenges.  My grands are all adults now but they still like getting cards from their grandparents. 

I'm joining in over at Time Out Challenges (1st card - I used sparkle, pink, heart), Just Us Girls and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.

I'm sharing the two styles of cards I created.  The first one is for my granddaughter.  

I used the Kirstina Werner Jumble of Hearts stencil to create the background.  One of the wonderful things about it is that one of the stencils masks the hearts and colors in the background.  I used the Altenew Rose Petals quad to ink blend the hearts and used one color, Purple Wine, for stamping the sentiment, which is from KW's Love & Adore You stamp and die set.  

The panel was cut with KW's Essential Dies scallop rectangle and I used the small heart die from the same set. The large white glitter heart was cut using the Simon Says Stamp Nested Rounded Heart die set.  After the card was all put together, I thought it needed a little something more, so I created a fun design around the heart with some Prism Dazzling Gems from SSS.

I used the same design for both of my grandson's cards.  I found some very old plaid patterned paper (SU Plaid Tidings) in black and white, which worked great with red accents.

Both the plaid paper and the red cardstock were cut with Simon's A2 Postage Rectangle dies and adhered together.  Before adding to the card base, I wrapped red Baker's Twine around it.  

The sentiment is from KW's You Are the Best stamp set, which was die cut with a heart die (same set as above) after white heat embossing.  The little hearts were cut using the KW Essential dies set.

That wraps up Valentine's Day for this year (you can see the card I made for my husband here using Stamping Bella's Oddball Cupid).  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Take care!

Stef

Earthenware Vases for the Paper Players

 Hello friends!  Today's card is for the new challenge at the Paper Players.  The lovely and amazing Ann is hosting our color challenge, choosing a gorgeous combination of colors.

Paper Players

This lovely combination had me thinking spring flowers but I pivoted to using a new die set that I received recently. 

The only Stampin' Up! cardstock I had was a piece of Mossy Meadow, the rest are from my cardstock "collection", trying to get as close as I could to the other colors, along with adding some gray and brown neutrals.

The vases and branches are from the Altenew Earthenware Vases dies set.  The blue vase was embossed using the Altenew Textured Blocks 3D folder that came with the die set.  The background is fog cardstock embossed with the Honey Bee Stamps Rustic Brick Wall 3D folder.  It was a bit too textured for layering all the other die cuts on top, so I ran it through my die cutting machine between the plates, which flattened it just enough.  

The "table" was created with the Tim Holtz Lumber 3D embossing folder and the Altenew Elegant Sayings stamp and die set provided the sentiment.  I did use a couple of Copic markers to color two branches and one set of flowers.  I left the other set of flowers uncolored, so it's more of a lighter version of coral.  The card came together quite quickly, once I settled on which cardstock I was going to use.

I look forward to seeing how you use this beautiful color combination, but before you head off, please pop over to the challenge blog here to see all the amazing cards created by my talented teammates.  The challenge will end on lucky Friday February 13th at 3pm EST.  I hope you'll join us this week!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

• Altenew Elegant Sayings Stamp and die set
• Altenew Earthenware Vases die set
• Altenew Textured Blocks ef
• Honey Bee Stamps Rustic Brick Wall ef
• Tim Holtz Lumber ef
• Simon Says Fog, Stampin' Up! Mossy Meadow, Tim Holtz Kraftstock Neutral, Concord & 9th Lakefront, Spellbinders Coral and Chiffon
• Copics E18 and R22

You're Mine for the Paper Players and Color Hues

Hello friends!  It's time for new challenges at both the Paper Players and Color Hues, so I've created one card for both challenges.  At the Paper Players, the lovely Claire chosen a timely theme and at Color Hues, the amazing Julie has chosen a perfectly complementary color combo.  Check it out!

Paper Players

Color Hues

The obvious choice was to use this opportunity to get one of my Valentine's Day cards completed.  I used a fabulous Oddball stamp set from Stamping Bella for my husband's card.  It's pretty quirky with the Oddball image, but I know he'll like it.

I used a stencil to create pink clouds around the Oddball Cupid, then colored her with Copic markers.  I used red, of course, and also used a combination of markers to color her wings, bow and the arrow feathers gold.  As always, the stamp packaging provided great guidance for shading. These images always humor me because they are so, um, odd. I especially like her boots with wings.

I did give her a landing spot amongst the clouds and since she has wings, of course she can stay above ground. I thought that was a fun way to use Claire's theme of love is in the air... 😉

The panel was cut with a postage rectangle die, matted with a red panel and added to the card base with foam tape.  The sentiment was also added with foam squares and the card was complete!

What are you inspired to create with these two challenges?  I encourage you to visit both challenges for the amazing inspiration by the respective design teams and our CH guest designer JoAnne.  The Paper Players challenge ends Friday February 6th at 3pm EST and the Color Hues challenge stays open until Saturday February 14th at 9 am EST.  Hope to see you there!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

• Stamping Bella Oddball Cupid Stamps
• MFT Cloud stencil
• Simon Says Stamp A2 Postage Rectangle die
• Altenew Baby Pink and Vineyard Berry inks
• Copics - R59, 39, 37, 35, E79, 57, 35, 33, 04, 21, 00, C0, 1, 3, 5, YR24, 23 Y15, 11, T2, 0

Happy Purrthday for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  It's time for a new sketch challenge at the Paper Players and this week the amazing Jaydee is hosting.  She has come up with such a fabulous sketch, I hope you all enjoy creating with it as much as I did.

Paper Players

I'm also joining the Anything Goes part of the Seize the Birthday Challenge.  

STB #319

Jaydee's sketch is versatile in that it would work well with any size card.  I ended up making an A7 card to accommodate the size of my die cut cats.  Let's take a look!

Once again, Tim Holtz dies tugged at my heart and then they ended up in my cart. 😍

The die set is called Mischievous and has 8 different cat dies.  I think they are so cute because if you've been around cats, these poses will be very familiar.  I knew they would need a landing spot on top of the patterned paper, so I used Hero Arts Nested Scallop Squares to die cut the gray cardstock and Pink & Main Square dies for the white layer.  In hindsight, I wish I'd made the white squares smaller or done a bit of ink blending on them. 

I dove into my remaining very, very ancient dsp from Stampin' Up and found this cute watercolor stripe paper in a sort of watermelon color, which worked great with the neutrals.  After layering that on the card base, the squares were popped up, leaving room for the fun sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp/Lawn Fawn Stamptember 2025 set called Purrfect Birthday.  I fussy cut the words to make it more playful, then finished things off with some gray pearls from my stash.

The challenge will remain open until Friday, January 30th at 3pm EST. My talented teammates have some amazing inspiration for you on the challenge blog here.  I hope you'll head over there to check it out, then join us this week.  We'd love to see how you use this sketch!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

 

A Little Birdie for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  This week is CAS week at the Paper Players and the lovely Joanne is hosting.  She has chosen an apropos theme for this time of year.  Just remember to limit your layers and embellishments and leave plenty of "white" space to keep it CAS.

Paper Players

 

I'm also playing along with the lovelies at Seize the Birthday, with their Anything Goes option.

STB #318

What I was initially thinking of using turned out to be not very CAS, so I made a change of direction and used a fun little die set that is more in line with this challenge.

I adore the Simon Says Stamp Birdies die set, but it's been quite a while since I used it here, plus I acquired the Birdies Winter Accessories dies last month and wanted them to be able to take an outing in their latest apparel. Wait, what?  Birdies around you aren't wearing their winter attire?  Well, those poor little things! 😉

After all the die cutting and assembly, I thought the birdies needed an appropriate background, so I ink blended some sky and clouds on a panel of white using the MFT Rolling Clouds stencil, then adhered it directly to the card base.  After adding the cute birdies on the branch, the sentiment (from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Crazy Talk) was popped up with a bit of thin foam tape.  I'll add the Happy Birthday wishes on the inside of the card when I go to send it.  The last step was to use a Sakura Black Glaze pen for their eyes.

What signs of winter would you like to share this week?  For additional inspiration, please pop over to the challenge blog here, where my amazing teammates have some wonderful creations to share!  You can play along until Friday January 23rd at 3pm EST.  I hope you'll join us!

Thanks for visiting!

Stef

Holiday Knits Noel for Color Hues

Hello friends!  We're back with a new challenge at Color Hues and this time the amazing Carol is hosting.  She has chosen a lovely winter combo of blue and white.

Color Hues

I'm also sharing this card with my friends over at Time Out Challenges, where this fortnight the theme is All That Glitters, and I do have glittery stuff on my card!

TOC #304

When initially thinking about this color combo, my first thought was to use navy or a dark blue.  But when I saw the prompt, the blue color made me think of one of my favorite cardstock colors, so I opted to go lighter.

And of course, you are welcome to use any hue of blue for your project.

I started with a panel of the dreamy Island Blue cardstock from Simon. Isn't it amazing that it's nearly the same color as the prompt?  The stamp is from a package of 2 red rubber stamps called Holiday Knits from Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous.  Love the crisp detail one gets with red rubber.  The image was inked up in white pigment ink and then white heat embossed.  The stamp measures 4" x 6" and after embossing, I trimmed it down to that size, then used foam tape to add it to a 4.5" x 6.5" card base.

The sentiment and snowflakes are from the Tim Holtz Sizzix Big Tidings die set and were cut from Altenew Moonstone glitter cardstock along with scraps of Island blue for the shadow and to layer beneath the snowflakes.  I added two additional white shadow die cuts to the sentiment for more dimension, then everything was adhered to the card front.  I knew it needed a little something more, so I searched my embellishments and found an almost perfect match in the Altenew Deep Sea Sapphire Gem Sparkles pack.  

This design was inspired by the blog post here from Kath Stewart, which I found on Pinterest.  She used the embossing folder rather than the stamp and darker blues with ink blending for her gorgeous card.  I think this card is a good candidate for making multiples, it came together so quickly. 

Won't you come join us and show how you choose to use this color combo?  For more inspiration, my oh, so talented teammates and our wonderful guest designer Bobby have some beautiful cards to share over at the challenge blog here.  The challenge will last until 9 am EST on Thursday January 29th.  Hope you'll play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef

Holly Christmas for the Paper Players

Hello friends!  The Paper Players are back with another year of weekly challenges.  This first one is our color challenge, hosted by the lovely LeAnne.  I used these colors to create a Christmas card (can't build up that 2026 stash fast enough!) but the trio would work nicely for many occasions.

Paper Players

What a gorgeous combo of colors!  My card uses a beautiful holly background stamp from Kristina Werner/Concord & 9th.  And because this is the first outing for this stamp on my blog, I'll be sharing it over at Darnell's NBUS blog.  And because Inkspirational is looking for Shine/Shiny on one's card, I'll also share over there because both my cards have shiny embellishments.

NBUS

Inspirational #358

Finally, I'll be sharing over at the SSS Wednesday Challenge where the theme this week is Something New.

I made two styles of card with these colors, but I like this first one best.

Because of the simplicity of the design, I ended up creating multiples, some on colored cardstock, with or without any ink blending.

For this card, I started by heat embossing the Easy Repeat Holly Background stamp in silver, then ink blending with shades of blue, fading to white.  I really like this look.  

The sentiment was created with Spellbinders Sending Joy Betterpress Plate and die.  I had a long and productive foiling session with this set last fall, and I have been reaping the benefits as I put together my holiday cards.  Simon Says Stamp Prism Sparkling Gems were added for berries and I was done!

So simple and so pretty!  For the card below, I ink blended blues on a panel of what I think was Misty Moonlight after heat embossing the same stamp in silver.  I trimmed down the sides, added it to a white card base and finished it off with thin strips of silver and SSS Starshine Sequins.

What style card do these colors bring to mind for you?  My wonderful teammates have a variety of designs to inspire at the challenge blog here.  The challenge lasts until Friday January 16th at 3pm EST.  I hope you'll join us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Stef