Wait! Christmas in March?

Happy Friday, friends!  I have had so much fun combining a new wreath die set from Altenew with a Christmas background stamp today - think it can't be done?  There's proof in the pudding:

Take a really good look at my background panel... see it?  

Yes, that is Pinkfresh Studio's Holiday City View - white heat embossed!

[come on - admit it!  we all have a neighbor who leaves their Christmas wreath on the door until the birds build their nest in it!!]

I had the best time cutting all the bits and pieces in this sweet Altenew Sweet Blooms die set!

I created blooms in many color combinations before deciding the purple/lavender was my favorite for Spring.  

I love the bit of texture and interest this background brought to my card without adding anymore bulk!  That sweet little tag sets this card up perfectly for any message I'd like to add inside - for any occasion at all!  Hello from HoneyBee Stamps' My Favorite Flower, and the tag is HoneyBee, too.

Hope you take another look at your Christmas supplies before storing them away!

Have a wonderful, crafty weekend, my friends - thank so much for stopping by today!

=] Michele

 

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

Celebrating with a Fancy Cake from Pretty Pink Posh

I recently celebrated my mom's birthday with this beautiful card.  She deserves, cake, flowers and glitter all wrapped up in one birthday card.

I cut the base of the cake and some of the accents from Altenew's Gilded Glitter Cardstock.  This paper makes the perfect accent for your cards and the glitter stays on the card, not everywhere else.  It's my favorite "go to" glitter paper.

As you can see, I love to stack up my dies to create dimension.  The tiny flowers I added to the cake came from the Sealed Wildflowers die set from Spellbinders.  I embellished them with the smallest size drop from Trinity Stamps Boiled Sugar gems.

The stripe background was created using the Simple Diagonal Stripe background from Lawn Fawn and that foiled sentiment is from the Birthday Unboxing hot foil plate from Spellbinders.

Hope I've inspired you to create something today!

Cathy

Links to products used or recommended are listed below: 

Easy, die cut, layered card using Spellbinders Essential Hearts and Be Bold Blooms

Hearts are not just for Valentine's Day.  Today's card and FREE project download sheet uses hearts and flowers to say....anything.  I love when the sentiments on the front of my cards allow me use the card for any occasion.  If you like this card and would love to create it, or something similar, be sure to download our FREE PDF project sheet.

 

I'm still working on using up the die cut flowers I have left from some previous projects.  So, I layered them up on hearts I had left over from Valentine projects.  You should see my crafty space!  What a mess.

You'll find all the details for creating this card in our Printable PDF Project Sheet.  It's FREE.  The link will take you to the website where you can download the instruction sheet.  Add it to your cart, check out, and start creating.

 

 Links to products used or recommended are listed below:   

A beautiful old friend meets a new one!

Hello again, my Doodlebugs friends!  Michele here so that means the weekend is upon us!  As the title hints, I've brought together a wonderful layering set from Altenew, and a new embossing folder to spend some time with today ...

More than a dozen alcohol markers were used to color this gorgeous 

Fairy Tale Florals bouquet!

However only one gorgeous embossing folder from Spellbinders Four Petal Collection was needed to give all this wonderful interest to the card base!  The folder is big enough to emboss a 5x7" card panel, but I centered my A2 panel for today's card.

Put the two together and add a sprinkling of pearls, and you've got yourself a wonderful 

card to give to your bestie - or the delivery person who graces your 

front porch with goodness on a regular basis!

The moral of today's story:  Old + New = just right!  

Happy weekend, my friends!

=] Michele

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

Are you a narcissus?

Or a daffy-dil?  ha!  Hello my Doodlebugs friends!  Michele here at my silliest again!  But seriously - what is the difference between a Daffodil and a Narcissus? My search on the internet answered my question:  the IS NO difference!  To top it all off they are also called Jonquils!  OY!

I had a really soothing take-my-own-sweet-time water coloring session with the gorgeous Build-a-Flower: Narcissus layering set from Altenew recently.  All I can say is I went with my memory of those growing in my mom's garden when I was a kid.  She never once got mad at me for picking a little bouquet for our neighbor!  Such a beautiful first look at Spring!

The perfect sentiment was found in the same set!

Think I used some fancy water coloring pigments?  Think again - simply grabbed a few

dye inks in various shades of my memories!

A few highlights by leaving some areas untouched, drying time between layers of ink, and

a few splatters [hope the recipient doesn't mind that wayward splat] from leftovers, and an additional bloom die cut with the coordinating dies, and my job here is done!

Happy weekend eve, my friends!

=] Michele

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:   

Link to Distress Inks

Create a die cut, heart shaped card

Anyone else have lots of die cut hearts sitting around in their crafty space?  I cut quite a few hearts last month for Valentine's Day projects and decided I'd challenge myself to use what I have left to create friendship and thank you cards.

Today I'm featuring a heart shaped card I created with the Spellbinders Essential Hearts dies.

This was a super easy card to create.  I added a bunch of layered, floral images to the front of a heart that was slightly smaller that the heart shape I was using for my folded card base. The flower dies are from the Be Bold Bloom set from Spellbinders.

This is how I created the folded base.  1.  Cut two hearts from the same sized heart shape die.  2. Score one of the dies across the top of the heart at 1/2 inch.  This will be the back of  your card.  3.  Glue the heart that you will be using for the front of your card,  to the heart you cut and scored for the back of your card.  Only add the glue to the 1/2 inch portion of the card, above the score line, securing the two pieced together.  4.  Cut approximately 1/2 inch from the bottom tip of the heart on the back portion of the card. This will help it to stand up straight on display.

I added the smaller, embellished heart to the front of my card.  The sentiment was hot foiled, but you could stamp a sentiment if you don't have a hot foiling system.

Hope this inspired you to create a shaped card.  They are so much fun.

Cathy

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

With Anemones like these!

Hello, Doodlebugs friends - I am fond of changing words around to suit my cards.  Today, is one of those days ... 'with Anemones like these - who needs friends?'  LOL

I am so happy to have these gorgeous Spellbinders' Anemones in the house!  For my first card, I used the cutting dies with some glossy photo paper a little bit of simple blender brush coloring, and the sentiment Friend die that is included in the Glimmer Anemone Glimmer Blooms set.

I cut this VERY fine friend from black cardstock once, and white two more times, 

then used an alcohol marker to color the edges black - also the Anemone centers!

This pretty oval is part of the Spellbinders Postage Edge Ovals set - love 

that itty bitty pierced dotted detail!

My next Anemone uses the Glimmer Hot Foil plate and die combo and a bit of simple alcohol marker coloring...

I used the same foil to add these darling hearts from Pinkfresh Studio on my panel,

and Fancy Script Words hot foil plate and coordinating dies for my sentiment.

Hope you like!  Of course, I'm not serious about not needing friends - what in the world would I do without you??  I do NOT want to find out! xx

=] Michele

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

No line watercoloring with Concord and 9th Blended Petals

Today I'm sharing my final cards using the Blended Petals stamp from Concord & 9th.  I used the no line watercolor technique to create them and was happy with the way the turned out (mostly).   I was inspired by Dawn at WPlus9.  Here's the video that inspired me.  Be sure take a peek at all her beautiful creations on YouTube.  I'm sure you'll be inspired. 

I used Distress Antique Linen to stamp my image on watercolor paper.  This gave me a light image to use as a guide for painting.  Since the Distress Ink is reactive with water, the lines disappear into the paint when I touch them with the wet brush.

As I colored the image, I added some water in a few areas on the background.  This let the paint move from the image to the wet paper and created a soft, loose look that I loved.  Be sure to watch Dawn's video if you think you might like to try this technique.
 

I had so much fun I tried a second version. 

I added sentiments using the Versatile Greeting die set from Altenew.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

Cathy

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

Layered Sentiments Dies Add Color to This Simple, Black and White Card

What do you do with a bunch of die cut sentiments?  Make a set of cards, of course.

I wanted to use the Blended Petals stamp set again.  I'm trying to challenge myself to use a set of stamps or dies several times in completely different ways.  Earlier this month I used the Blended Petals stamp set and stencils to create a lovely, soft, ink blended card.  If you'd like to take a look at that card you'll find the details in this post.  Here's the link to another card I created using the same set.

This time I thought bright and graphic would be fun.  I cut and layered a bunch of sentiments from some bright colors.

 

I cut and scored several pieces of white cardstock to create side folding note cards.  Then I set up my MISTI stamping tool and stamped the same images on each of them in a nice, black ink.

After creating all the card bases, I added the layered sentiments.  That's it.  Super simple, bright and fun.

I love all the dimension created when stacking multiple layers of dies.  Are you a fan of the layers, or do you prefer to have just a single layer?

Hope I've inspired you to create something fun.

Cathy

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

Just a [Wintertime] note!

Is anyone else ready for the weekend??  For a short-ish month, this February seems to have gone on long-ish! lol  

Hello, Doodlebugs friends - Michele here with a wintery note to brighten someone's day!  I loved getting the Doodlebugs 'back in stock' email for Honey Bee's Lovely Layers: Winter Greenery!  My card came together with a few lovely 'supporting actors!'

Concord & 9th's Just Saying dies cut from custom-made pink cardstock 

is such a pretty addition to the greyish greens paper I found in my stash.  

A sweet friend of mine recently sent me vellum panels that she had embossed - I decided to give it a try using my old friend:  Forevergreen embossing folder from Spellbinders.  I loved that Stephanie had positioned her vellum to catch just a portion of her folder, so I followed suit here.  Isn't it pretty?  I used the same vellum to cut the shadow layer of my sentiment die.  A little dusting of Stickles-snow and my card was done!

I hope your weekend plans include CASEing something you've been inspired by - if that is something your saw here you've made my day!

=] Michele

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

Mass Producing Cards for Gift Sets

I created a few sets of hand-made cards and gave them as gifts during the holidays.  I thought I'd share a few cards from one of the sets with a brief description should you want to create something similar.

 When creating a large number of similar cards, I find it easiest to create and assemble all the components first.  I began by die cutting, gluing and layering all the flowers, bows, and sentiments.

The sentiment above was hot foiled, but the one below was created layering die cuts.  I do mix up the colors and sentiments to keep it interesting but I leave the basic components the same.  This makes prep and assembly easier for me.

Once I finished the "embellishment" pieces, I stamped the backgrounds, cut and layered the frames and secured them to the front of my folded note cards.  I love layering everything with multiple layers.  However, if you prefer a flatter card, you can skip the layering.

To finish the cards, I added flowers and sentiments.  As you can see, each card is different,  but the layout and assembly is similar.

Add envelopes, wrap them with some tissue and tie them with a beautiful ribbon.  

Here's a full picture of some of the cards.  Do you have a favorite?

Hope this inspires you to create some cards and gift them to someone who might love them.

Cathy

Links to products used or recommended are listed below:  

Create Beautiful Embellishments with Layered Die Cut Floral Images

Happy Monday crafty friends.  I have another quick and easy floral card to share with you today.  We're expecting cold temperatures and more snow this week.  Like every year, I'm trying to rush in spring, but mother nature keeps reminding me that it is still winter.  I'm hoping these lovely flowers will bring some cheer until the garden wakes up.

To create the background, I cut the Floral Frame die a few times from cream cardstock and stacked them together for some dimension and added them to the front of a white, side folding note card.

The center panel was cut from the Love You More Than die set from Concord & 9th.  It's a great layering piece for adding a sentiment and some embellishments to your cards.  It's just the right size for many of my card designs and the scalloped edge and stitching finish it nicely.

The layered floral and leaf images from Spellbinders Be Bold Bloom die are the finishing touches for this card.  I love the layered dimension you get when you add additional layers to the flowers and the soft pink / coral colors remind me of spring.

Have a great week everyone.  I hope you'll find some time this week to get creative.

Cathy

Links to products used or recommended are listed below: