“Celebrate” card using Lovely & Beautiful DSP and Simply Beautiful bundle, stamped & sponged

At first, the large prints of flowers in the Lovely & Beautiful DSP pack and corresponding Simply Beautiful stamp and die set were so intimidating! The prints were beautiful though so I decided I needed to get over that. LOL

I embossed the background using the floral embossing folder from the Cheers & Sips Suite of products. And then I stamped the large floral and two sets of double leaves on a piece of scrap white cardstock and die cut them out.  I used finger daubers to add color, purposefully making the color uneven in places. The gold strip and gold flower centers all pull together with the gold on the printed DSP. A small “celebrate” message (from the Banner Sayings stamp set and corresponding punch) set the tone for a celebration.

Here’s a close up of the background embossed panel. I love how an embossed background adds a touch of elegance and fills the background without being too busy:

And here’s a close up of the coloring of the focal flower and the sentiment was also sponged to match. I purposely tried to let go and not try to make every petal of the blossom and leaves have an even coverage. I rather like the way the flowers turned out!

And in closing, a second card made in the same way:

I hope you enjoyed these cards…I loved making them! Thanks for stopping by 😉

Perennial Lavender meets Along These Lines Fun Fold

I had fun creating this card with the Perennial Lavender DSP. This particular print is perhaps my favorite print in the paper pack because of the touch of Proud Peacock in the foliage of the leaves. I knew I wanted to use the stamp set called Along These Lines as well as the Blooming Phrases stamp set. And because I love fun folds, I came up with this design which is a play of an often used partial Z-fold design:

This is the card opened and as you can see, I used another of the prints in the DSP pack on the inside as well. The split sentiment is from the Blooming Phrases stamp set and I decided to split it between the front and insides of the card. The front sentiment is stamped  and matted with the banner dies from the Stylish Shapes Dies:

And the “aerial” photo below shows the partial Z-fold design of the card better:

Here’s a close up of the coloring of the stamped rose. I also added splatters of ink (Fresh Freesia and Just Jade) on the background. The plain oval panel looked too stark otherwise and it needed something to add interest. 

And of course the finishing touch of the Fresh Freesia bow! 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed a closer look at this card.

Happy New Year 2026 Darling Donkey card

This card was made using a retired but new-to-me stamp set called Darling Donkey and I instantly knew I had to make a New Year's card with it! I had seen this on Pinterest when the stamp set was newly issued as a Sale-a-bration freebie with a $50 purchase. I loved the ingenuity of the person who first created this design, and their sense of humor!

I didn’t actually follow any particular Pinterest pin since I knew I wanted to use this particular DSP pack (Bright and Beautiful)  for its colorful and happy vibes. And my “number” dies were from the  Birthday Celebration bundle so I didn’t really need to further use the exact pin since my colors were set as were the size of the numbers for the year! And one of the Textured Notes dies were the perfect size for the focal panel.

I decided to make this card into a simple easel card so I added the sentiment as the “stopper”:

Here’s a closer look at the “stopper”:

The sentiment is from a Hero Arts set and it fit perfectly on one of the smaller die cuts also from the Textured Notes dies set. I popped it up using foam dimensionals so that it catches the card base easier.

And here’s a side view of the easel card:

I hope you like my version of the Darling Donkey New Year card. Thanks for stopping by. Wishing you a wonderful year with good health and happiness!

Sunflower 3D Embossing Folder

I still remember the first time I embossed a piece of plain white card stock…and the feeling of WOW this is amazing!! And the Sunflower 3D embossing folder is definitely a WOWer! I love that it’s a 6x6” folder so that you can place your A2 sized panel anywhere in the folder and get different angles of the flowers based on where you want your focal flower(s) to be.

There are so many fun techniques you can use with this: coloring a white card stock panel with sponge daubers, markers, pencils, and brayers. You can tear the embossed panel and of course embossed a colored panel of card stock. For my first play with this folder I decided to use sponge daubers for a softer look:

I used the small sponge daubers that fit over your finger tip, and these ink colors: 

• Pecan Pie
• Daffodil Delight
• Garden Green
• Calypso Coral and 
• Poppy Parade

And I wanted to use a frame to focus on a particular sunflower — the Textured Notes Dies were perfect for that!

Tip: I attached two of the dies together using a post it note and ran the dies with Daffodil Delight card stock through the Cut & Emboss machine. That resulted in a perfect frame for the floral focal (and an extra inner rectangle which will be used on a future project💕) 

Tip: I attached the “frame” to the card base using Adhesive Strips (item#141825). These are thinner than the 6-sided Dimensionals foam stickers and come in a sheet of long strips that you can easily cut down to the size you need. These also make shaker cards so easy to make!!

Since you can never have too many birthday cards, I chose a simple die cut and Happy Birthday sentiment.  To finish off the front of the card, I added some opaque gems in colors that matched the card front. Here’s the full card front: 

The inside is always the last thing and  I try to embellish the inside of my cards somehow, with either a scrap  strip of patterned paper or a stamped image. I found the perfect sunflower-looking leaf from the Friendly Hello stamp set, a  Salebration freebie from a few years back, and stamped it in Garden Green:

That’s it for my first Sunflower Embossing Folder card! Plenty of future ideas but as always, so little time! Thanks for spending some time reading this blog & hope you’re  inspired to do something creative💕

Florals in Bloom fun fold Double Triangle Card

I saw this card design on many a card making website so I don't recall which I accessed for the measurements of this card. I love it but had a dickens of a time getting everything "even". I'm in love with the look but...I may never make another one again! But I suspect it's one of those that are easy once you make a second and third one...I am just not there! (yet?? LOL)

I should have used a different pattern from the DSP pack, but I was drawn the vibrancy of this pattern on a red card base, so that was what I chose to create with.

Since I hate when you write inside a card and it shows when the card is closed, I added a decorative panel as well as a white cardstock angled panel so that you could write a personal message inside and yet know what the boundaries of your writing should stay within. Here's what the inside looked like:

And since I don't know who I will send this card to, it remains without sentiment for the time being. But it is a pretty card, isn't it? 

Thanks for stopping by...have a wonderful day!

Florals In Bloom HUGS cards

My first cards using the Florals in Bloom DSP pack  used  two of my favorite prints from it.  I love how the tone was set based on the colors of each print:

This DSP pack has some fun and cheery floral prints, with some intriguing reverse prints:

Here is a close up of the red card...it grabs your attention and the focals just pull you in! Lots of energy in the colors of this card!

And here is the "blue" card...softer, more thoughtful...calmer. 

The insides of the cards were done like this:

These made for some simple but sweet cards!

Thanks for stopping by...have a wonderful day!

Inspiring Imperfections bundle /Kintsugi Inspirations Suite / Kintsugi Inspirations SDSP

Soooo excited that Stampin’UP! has finally released an Asian influenced stamp sets after a hiatus of several years! This is the first card that I’ve made from this stamp and die bundle, Joined Together 3D Embossing Folder and Specialty Designer Series Paper. I realize that I forgot to add the flower accent embellishments to this card, but it was sent to a male so I usually don’t add bling to guys’ cards! (Phew!)

Here’s the card:

Before I get into the detail of the card, let me explain what Kintsugi is. “Kin” means gold and “tsugi” means to join or mend. Hence the term is used to describe the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with veins of gold between the broken pieces. Each break adds to the history of the vessel and so, this sentiment is most appropriate!

The recipient of this card is the one person I often chat family history with. So rather than a “happy birthday” on the front as a sentiment, I used one of the stamps in the bundle since it was absolutely fitting our friendship.

I only stamped twice for this card: the sentiment and the chrysanthemum. The flower was stamped in Memento Black and colored in using watercolor pencils in Pacific Point and Garden Green (my watercolor pencils predate the recent Color Refresh). The vase is fussy cut from the Specialty DSP and I sponged it with Gorgeous Grape and Misty Moonlight. 

Can you see the gold “crack”? It was die cut in gold foil and added to the vase after. I used the frame from the Framed Scenes Dies to emphasize the new 3D embossing folder design:

Then I did something different by layering it on a mat of Misty Moonlight and then onto a 5.5x11” piece of the specialty DSP that was scored at 4.25” like the typical card base. It was lighter in weight than Basic White card stock so I added a panel on the inside plus a strip of the DSP.

I loved playing with this set and can’t wait to work with it some more. But first, I need to get a birthday card for a very special young lady of 6 years mailed…June has been a busy month for personalized birthday cards…hoping to post them all here on the blog as time permits…

Thanks for stopping by…have a wonderful day!

Happy Spring Lily card Paper Pumpkin March 2023 Ten Years Of Growth

I hope I got the Paper Pumpkin edition correct...it's been a while! Lilies do bloom during the summer too but in the spring, they are the bright happy sign of warmer sun and bluer skies! If you’re lucky enough to live in an area with the most sunshine days, perhaps this has less meaning but in the Pacific Northwest where the skies are gray and it’s rainy most days of the late fall, winter and early/mid spring…blossoms are so cheery and a welcome sign of spring!

I’m not much of a coloring in person but I’ve been trying to get over that! Alcohol markers are so popular so I’ve been buying a few at a time to have enough colors to be practical. Thought these turned out okay! LOL. The sentiment is a combinations of separate word stamps, the top and bottom ones are from the Birthday Wishes set - one of the very first photo polymer stamp sets I bought! The Spring sentiment is from the same March 2023 Paper Pumpkin kit stamp set.

The label for the sentiment is from the Mixed Labels Dies -- love the dot and dash design along the label's edge! And the embossed mat is one of the embossing folders from the Meadow Moments folder set (it came with 2 embossing folders). 

Thanks for stopping by...hope this inspired to you create something today too!

Kayak birthday card - Adventurous Journey

Sometimes I buy a stamp set that’s so unique that I need to get it. But then the need to use it doesn't happen for a while. LOL That is this set called Adventurous Journey! And then the need for a special birthday card came up and ... the perfect match!

The Adventurous Journey stamp set includes a kayak, row boat, paddle, lily pads & a fish, and rings of dispersion from a water drop (like when you paddle and water drops from your oar). 

So the birthday card was for a kayaker so this was the PERFECT occasion to use this set! And this is what the card looked like:

I used a blending brush to add some soft color to the water under the kayak and Azure Afternoon ink for the water rings. I actually stamped the kayak on scrap paper, used alcohol markers to color it, and then cut it out. I also (amazingly) had the perfect sentiment for the front of the card, which came from a set called Etched In Nature. 

As an additional dimensional element, I glued one edge of the kayak onto the card front then used Dimensionals (foam stickers) to lift the other side, as if the kayak was leaning over (as it would when paddling). Here’s a closer look at the angled dimensional effect:

And here you can see the shadow under the paddle at the top of the card:

Here’s a close up  of the waterlily pads and fish:

And last but not least, I use the Bark 3D Embossing Folder to create the look of ripples on the water’s surface:

The “ it’s your day enjoy it!” sentiment is from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set. And the Happy Birthday (note the different fonts and font sizes) are both from the Adventurous Journey stamp set.

And that about sums up this card. I hemmed and hawed about starting it but once I started, it came together really quickly.

Cocktails card for a 21st birthday

I had a special order of a card for a 21st birthday…the celebration was going to include *responsible* drinking with a chauffeured limousine. (I was quite relieved to hear that of course!) With black and pink as the fave colors, I knew that I wanted to use the “Nothing’s Better Than” stamp set and the corresponding “Love You More Than” dies. I love the silly but oh so much fun drink umbrellas,  so of course I had to use the stamp of the cocktail glass with them…And here’s the final product:

I double cut the word “Cocktails” in black then mounted the pink on top to create a shadowed effect. And for the background, I simply stamped the same cocktail glass randomly everywhere on the background.

And I LOVED how the sentiments in this set worked so well with the theme….being awesome and celebrating a birthday! Here’s the inside: 

And the last detail was to stamp the envelope:

Since this would be hand delivered, I didn’t have to worry about the stamped image on the front of the envelope being problematic with the post office, but I think it would have been fine anyhow.

Thanks for stopping by & (as the card said)…have an awesome day !

Jungle Pals standing fun fold birthday card

Salebration…it’s the two month promo period (Jan-Feb) when Stampin’UP! offers a special selection of free stamps, dies, dry embossing folders, and printed paper packs free with purchase. And this year (2024), I picked the Jungle Pals stamp set and dies for two of my freebies. Here’s the card I CASED from my friend Laura Seki, with her permission. CASEing a card means to “copy and share everything” where you use what has been shared, and make a change that makes the card our own! 

I stamped the sloth from the stamp set and added a toucan to Laura’s design (also from the same stamp set). I used the corresponding dies to cut them out. Then I die cut the tree twice, adhering  the second die cut over the first but flipped (look at the branches for a clue!). I added some leaves and a panel as the background from the Daisy Designer Series Paper pack that looked lush and “tropical”. I wanted a custom greeting for a special 4 year old….so I printed this out using my computer and die cut it using the banner die from the Stylish Shapes die set (#159183).

The card design is a fun fold that includes a “pillar” (where the tree is adhered to) so the card actually stands upright. And the pillar folds up so that the card fits into a standard A2 envelope. (Sorry that I didn’t take a photo of it folded up!)

Here’s a close up of the sloth: 

And a closeup of the toucan. I also used dimensionals to pop the leaves up in front of it. 

On the back, I added another sloth and a vine: 

For this sloth, I stamped it on Crumb Cake cardstock before die cutting it. Hoping the special birthday boy liked his card! Would you if you were 4??

Thanks for stopping by…have a wonderful day!

Mountain View Fun Fold - Dainty Delight Birthday Card

I love making special fun folds for special birthdays and this one is no exception. I found a wonderful tutorial on Pinterest by France Martin (“Mountain View Fun Fold” dated Jan 9, 2023). Her examples didn’t include the paper I was using though and I changed it up a little inside as well.

Inside, I added some panels of embossed card stock and since I was traveling when I finished off the card, I was missing a stamp for “and”, so I had to draw that in using a blending pen and ink spot. Not happy with the way that turned out but, this is a handmade card after all and no one can dispute that! LOL Here’s the inside:

Please check out France Martin’s blog at  Frenchiestamps.com (search for “Mountain View Fun Fold”) to get the directions making this fun fold. It’s easier than it looks!

Thanks for stopping by…have a creative day!

Dainty Delights and Paper Florist trellis/fence cards

I had a ton of fun a few months ago with a new-to-me card design called a fence card and I recently revisited this card design! It’s the PERFECT use of my stash of 1/2” strips of card stock and I had enough of these strips to make several cards… The perfect stash buster of strips for sure! 

I started with the Paper Florist Dies. For the first card, I chose pastel colors including Balmy Blue, Fresh Freesia and the retired Mint Macaron. For all of my fence cards, I added a layer under the card front so that any writing inside the card would not show through the slats! The softness of the color scheme suggested that a get well message might be well suited for this card:

And similar to this one, I created one in Petal Pink and Balmy Blue, and added a bit of background texture using one of then designs in the Foursquare Decorative Masks set and a blending brush with Balmy Blue ink. And some edging color using Sponge Daubers on the petals before I curled the petal edges slightly.

Here’s a closeup of the mask:

Still with the Paper Florist Dies but choosing a different, BOLD color scheme, I chose red! Poppy Parade to be exact. Between the red and the Garden Green leaves, it initially looked very Christmasy, which wasn’t the look I was going for. So I added a die cut in dotted black on top, and under the fencing, I added some paper from my stash that had irregularly drawn black stripes. And to get more depth and a shadow effect, I die cut the leaves in Garden Green, then topped them slightly offset in Mint Macaron. (I really miss that color…). To prevent the black twine from slipping off the edge of the sentiment piece, I clipped a tiny half-hole punched and wound my twine in the depression to keep it put.

For the next two cards, I used the Dainty Delights bundle of stamps and dies. I stamped, colored and die cut two of the stamp images, and added a die cut of the angled stem underneath them. I used another one of the stencils in the Foursquare Masks set for a bit of background color and texture. I added a little more color this time compared to the blue in the Paper Florist card.

And then I created a card using only die cuts from the Dainty Delights set and cut them using Daffodil Delight card stock. I used the same green angled stem but cut it in two to create two shorter stems. I then decorated the stems adding the cheery little daisy like flowers (brown eyed Susans?). And I used yet another of the Foursquare Decorative Masks (there are 4 in the set):

Oh, the inside of this card is stamped: …You’d be better already!

Time to get on with the day…I’ve loved making these fence cards and I can imagine that when my stack of 1/2” scraps pile up again, I’ll be stash busting and making a bunch of these! Hope you enjoyed this post…have a wonderful day!