Encre, papier, ciseaux

Fresh Flowers

Inspiration: Colour Inkspiration #182 

I picked the Colour Inkspiration colour combo to play with my new Flower Cart dies. I also used the French Everyday Sentiments dies to die-cut my sentiment, which reads "Hi." For the blue flowers, I inked the individual flowers with the ink matching the cardstock to make them slightly darker.

For the background, I cut a piece of white cardstock using the Candy Cane Frame Post Card dies from Papertrey Ink to get a postcard border, and then I lighly inked the center using a blender brush and Boho Blue ink. Using the same ink, I used two of the Artist Trading Card Backgrounds stencils from Studiolight to add detailing. I found pearls and gems in matching colours to embellish the card.

I used the remaining die-cuts on the envelope to make it match. I really love the attention to details in this set, like all the little pieces to add to the pail and I love that all of the stripes can be done at once since they are all attached at the top with an horizontal line. Clever! 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Boho Blue, Pretty Peacock, Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Peach Pie, Basic White, Crumb Cake,
Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Granite Grey, Vellum (Stampin' Up!); Copper Opulent Specialty Papers (Sizzix)
Ink: Boho Blue (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Flower Cart, French Everyday Sentiments (Spellbinders);
Beautiful Wings Embosslits (Stampin' Up! for Sizzix)
Accessories: White Medium Envelope, Stampin' Dimensionals, 2024-2026 In Color Shimmer Gems,
Blooming Pearls, Metallic Pearls, Brushed Metallic Adhesive-Backed Dots (Stampin' Up!);
Artist Trading Card Backgrounds Stencils (Studiolight); Blender Brushes (Waffle Flower)

 

Santa Cup

Inspiration: Tic Tac Toe #264 (Enamel Dots + Die-Cuts + Dry/Heat Embossing) + Little Red Wagon #794 (Red Alert) + TGIF Challenge #512 

On a whim, I decided I wanted to assemble the Christmas Cocoa set from Doodlebug Design. I was really happy when Doodlebug decided to create the Doodle Cuts, giving us the chance to create our own die-cut images in their trademark cutesy style. Isn't that cup and aren't those gingerbread cookies adorable? The little squiggly hair on the top of their heads just take it over the top. You just have to arm yourself with patience and the right tools to handle those teeny tiny dots and bows, but the result is worth the extra effort.

Once my images were assembled, I embossed a piece of Pear Pizzazz cardstock using the Forever Plaid 3D embossing folder from Stampin' Up! I matted this piece with Early Espresso cardstock, and I mounted it on an piece of Real Red cardstock embossed with the Vintage Ornaments 3D folder from Spellbinders. I tied red and white twine at the bottom and created my sentiment, which reads "Just for You", using a stamp and matching die set from 4 en Scrap. I added enamel dots in matching colours at the top.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: À ouvrir sans tarder (4 En Scrap)
Cardstock Base and Envelope: DoCrafts
Cardstock: Real Red, Pear Pizzazz, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Basic White, Basic Black, Blush Blossom (Stampin' Up!);
Red Mirror (Prism Studio); Green Glitter (Unknown); Golden Satin Specialty (Tonic)
Ink: VersaMark
Embossing Folders: Forever Plaid (Stampin' Up!); Vintage Ornaments (Spellbinders)
Dies: Cadres #11 (4 En Scrap); Christmas Cocoa (Doodlebug Design)
Accessories: Red Embossing Powder (Top Boss); Red and White Twine (Simon Says Stamp);
White Glitter Foam (Spellbinders); Bright Glitter and Red, White and Blue Sprinkles (Doodlebug Design);
Stampin' Dimensionals, Real Red & White Adhesive-Backed Peppermints (Stampin' Up!)

 

Let It Snow

Inspiration: Cut It Up Challenge #323 (This Makes Me Smile - Lawn Fawn does!)

I finally tested my coloring stencils from Lawn Fawn for the first time, using the Simply Celebrate Santa set. This was a very clever addition by Lawn Fawn to their product line, to offer a different and easy way to color their images. I've been using the little brushes from Spellbinders and I'm not sure how I feel about them, I might need to test other tools to see what I like better.

I looked in my Lawn Fawn paper pads and pulled out Let's Bokeh in the Snow to create my background. I picked the blue bokeh patterned for the bottom, and die-cut the Giant Let It Snow sentiment from Spellbinders' white sparkly foam. To fill the space underneath, I added a Aidan Snowflake die-cut, and I also created a border with the Scalloped Arches Border dies and red foil cardstock. I added sequins to fill in the space, and pulled a metallic green envelope to match.

This made for an interesting result. Not sure this is my favorite creation, but it did give me the chance to play with some supplies and test things out. I realize the coloring with the stencils is softer than when using alcohol markers, so the image does not stand out against patterned papers the same way. Something to keep in mind when deciding which medium to pick when coloring my images.

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps, Stencils and Dies: Let's Celebrate Santa (Lawn Fawn)
Cardstock: Basic White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Let's Bokeh in the Snow (Lawn Fawn)
Ink: Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Dies: Giant Let It Snow, Cross-Stitched Rectangle Stackables, Scalloped Arches Border (Lawn Fawn);
Aidan Snowflake (Simon Says Stamp); Zig-Zag Stackers (Penny Black)
Accessories: Brushes (Spellbinders); Stampin' Dimensionals, Loose Silver Sequins (Stampin' Up!);
White Glitter Foam (Spellbinders); Snowflakes Glitter (Studio Katia); A2 Fairway Metallic Envelope (Envelopes.com)

 

Love Notes Coin Pocket Album

Inspiration: Coin Pocket Album Tutorial from Pinkstrawberryz

Challenge: Alphabet Challenge (V is for Vintage)

I found this new tutorial from Michelle in my feed and it inspired me to pull out the Love Notes collection from Graphic 45, which has been sitting in my stash for too long. There are days when everything comes together easily, and this was one of those days. The only hiccup was when I started because Michelle did not mention anything about directional paper and I realized after cutting the corners off that my text would be upside down, and I knew it was going to bother me, so I switched paper and started from the beginning. You might want be careful with the scoring dimensions, as I think the way they are done in the video, you end up with the largest panel on right rather than the left, so I ran with it and glued my pocket on the left. I also used a circle die to make the rounded edge on the central pocket, as I did not trust myself to wing it and be happy with the result.

I have some leftover ribbon pieces from a crafting event that are cut very short, and I try to use them when I can on tags or other things that don't necessitate a long piece. I was planning to go for the lace, but I found this green seam binding that matched the greenery in the papers nicely, so I decided a departure from black, red and ivory would make the project pop a little more.

My favorite find was when I reached for the Notebook Photo Corners die set from Sunny Studio, planning to use one of the corner dies, but then I realized that the notebook die might fit in the front pocket - and what do you know, the width and height is perfect to the dot! Having this notebook edge really added something fun to the project.

The patterned papers included a lot of cut-apart images that ended up being the perfect size for the pockets, the panels and the front panel. Look at that violin image - perfectly sized for the front of the album! I'm really happy with the result. I had tried to work with this paper before and could never really find the right inspiration for it, so I'm glad I was finally able to put something together that does it justice!  

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers: Love Notes (Graphic 45)
Ink: Crumb Cake (Stampin' Up!)
Dies: Notebook Photo Corners (Sunny Studio); Tall Tag Duo (My Favorite Things);
Layering Circles (Tonic)
Accessories: Circle Punches, Black Thread, Pear PIzzazz Seam Binding (Stampin' Up!);
Jumbo Eyelets, Crop-A-Dile (We R Memory Makers); Mini Ink Blender Tool (Ranger)

 

Sunny Hugs & Kisses

Inspiration: Try a Sketch on Tuesday #663 + Simon Says Stamp Monday (Bright & Cheerful)

I've been working on finishing paper collections that are down to their last scraps, and when I saw the "bright and cheerful" theme, I knew that my Pebbles paper would work well. The Try a Sketch on Tuesday challenge was also perfect, because the design uses mostly strips, so I was able to stretch my leftover pieces. I was wondering if the largest piece of patterned paper I had could work for an envelope. It was not large enough to use with the Envelope Punch Board, but using the Mini Slimline Envelope dies from Simon Says Stamp was a good workaround since I can die-cut envelope in three pieces and assemble it. It was lucky that the leftover paper allowed me to die-cut all three pieces with the chevron pattern going the same way.

I colored the girl from the Hot & Sunny stamp set with Copic markers, and I embossed a sentiment from the Everyday Script set with Melon Mambo powder, to keep with the colorful theme. For embellishing, I went to my Queen & Co buttons, as they are usually too bright to match with my other papers, but the bright pink and purple was perfect here. I die-cut the background piece using the Foundation 17 dies from Queen & Co, to get a stitched edge around the paper.

 

 

 

Supplies
Stamps: Everyday Script, Hot & Sunny (The Greeting Farm)
  Cardstock: Solar White (Neenah); Tempting Turquoise (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Paper: Party with Amy Locurto (Pebbles)
Dies: Foundation 17 (Queen & Co); Scalloped Stitched Nesting Circles (Tutti Designs);
Mini Slimline Envelope (Simon Says Stamp)
Accessories: Buttons (Queen & Co)l Markers (Copic);
Melon Mambo Stampin' Emboss Powder, Stampin' Dimensionals (Stampin' Up!)

 

Mr. Sunshine

Inspiration: Sunday Stamps #353 + Festive Friday #177 (Gold + Sequins + Glimmer Paper)

The starting point of this card was my leftover patterned paper from the It's All Good collection from Dear Lizzy for American Crafts. I already had a stitched oval die-cut leftover, which reminded me of the Sunday Stamps sketch, so I decided to go for this design. I looked in my basket of scraps organized by colours and found a pink polka dot paper that was a perfect match to the colours, so this is what I used for the horizontal band.

The citrus-print paper made me think of summer, so I decided to paper piece Mr. Sun out of Daffodil Delight cardstock, Sherbet Lemon glitter paper and gold mirror cardstock. I added black cardstock for the mouth and the sunglasses. I had a ribbon scrap on my desk that was the exact colour of the background paper, so it inspired me to cut the ends at an angle and layer it behind the oval. 

For the sentiment, I reached out for the Simply Sentimental Hugs dies from Trinity Stamps. The Sherbet Lemon glitter cardstock layered on the gold shadow looks really good. Since I already had two of the elements from the Festive Friday challenge, I made sure to pick sequins as my embellishment, but I also added a few gems around the sentiment as well.

I used the remaining paper to make a matching envelope.

 

 

 

 

With the leftover pieces from my first sun, I assembled a second one, giving him a mustache this time. I was planning to use him on my envelope, but it was a little big and I realized I might prefer to make a bookmark with him since he is flat instead. I picked the Gift Tag dies from My Favorite Things to create the bookmark itself, using my leftover patterned paper. The arms were hanging over the edges , so I decided to keep only the legs. I added a little hole reinforcer, cut out of pink paper. This will be a fun one for my summer reading.

 

 

 

Supplies
Patterned Papers: It's All Good (Dear Lizzy for American Crafts)
Cardstock: Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Thick Basic White (Stampin' Up!);
Gold Opulent Specialty Paper Pack (Sizzix); Sherbet Lemon Glitter Cardstock (Tonic)
Dies: Mr. Sun, Stitched Rounded Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn);
Layering Ovals, Stitched Shapes (Stampin' Up!); Essential Stylish Ovals (Spellbinders);
Simply Sentimental Hugs (Trinity Stamps); Gift Tag (My Favorite Things)
Accessories: Old Olive Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board (Stampin' Up!);
Lemon Sherbet Sequins (Little Things from Lucy's Cards); Pale Yellow Sequins (Cartwright's);
PIneapple Delight Crystals (Studio Katia)

 

Valentine's Day Candy

Inspiration: Color Throwdown #826 + Tic Tac Toe #263 (Hearts + Designer Paper + Love sentiment) + Just Us Girls challenge #761 (Heart Dies)

The inspiration image from Color Throwdown immediately made me think of the Chocolate Kiss collection from Mintay, so it gave me a good opportunity to pull it out. One of the cut-apart sheets (the one with the 3" x 4" cards) had this nice image of an envelope with candy, so I fussy cut it and started planning my design around this as the main image. I decided to cut a lacy heart out of two of the pink patterned papers to layer underneath the main image. I drew inspiration from an old Mojo Monday sketch for the placement of my various elements. One of the patterned paper had a LOVE banner that was the perfect size for the card and was also perfect for the Tic Tac Toe challenge.

I used the cool chocolate pattern for the card background, and I layered another piece of pink paper behind to tie everything together. I added pearls and sequins to finish embellishing, and I stapled the side of one of the papers for additional texture. I used the pink heart paper to make a matching envelope, with an address block die-cut out of pink paper.

 

 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Thick Basic White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Chocolate Kiss (Mintay)
Dies: Lacy Heart Stackables, Dotted Rectangle Stackables, Cross-Stitched Rectangle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board, Mini Stapler,
Purple Adhesive-Backed Sequins, Antique Pearls, Resin Heart Embellishments (Stampin' Up!);
Glossy Blossom Pearl Mix (Little Things from Lucy's Cards)

 

Sweet Baby

Inspiration: Mojo Monday #128 + Little Red Wagon #793 

When I saw the teddy bear challenge, I jumped on the chance to pull out the Beary Cozy paper collection from Memory Place. I have also recently pulled some older embellishment packs that I would like to finish using, and one of those was an old baby-themed rub-on pack. I used one of the words I was not planning on using to check if they were still transferring properly, and they are so I kept "sweet baby" as my sentiment and transferred it to a piece of gingham paper.

I went to the paper with all of the images for fussy cutting and picked the teddy bear hiding his eyes as my main image. I also cut out a tag, a leaf, flowers and blanket to fill in the space around the card. I die-cut the orange paper with the Cross-Stitched Circle dies and layered a mini scalloped circle die-cut behind. The background was die-cut out of the sage knit pattern, and I layered one more strip of patterned paper as well.

I made a matching envelope out of patterned paper from the same pack and I layered some leftover pieces to match. I embellished the cards and envelopes with antique pearls and adhesive-backed sequins. The result is very sweet and also gender-neutral. 

 

 

 

Supplies
Cardstock: Thick Basic White (Stampin' Up!)
Patterned Papers: Beary Cozy (Memory Place)
Dies: Scalloped Stitched Nesting Circles (Tutti Designs); Dotted Rectangle Stackables,
Cross-Stitched Circle Stackables (Lawn Fawn)
Accessories: Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins, Stampin' Dimensionals, Envelope Punch Board,
Antique Pearls (Stampin' Up!); Baby Rub-Ons (Unknown Source)