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

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

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