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Magical Fuchsias

We almost always have a hanging pot of fuchsias on our side porch during the summer. When Alex Syberia released the Magical Fuchsia suite of products I knew I wanted them in my collection. Since my birthday was coming, I put them on my wish list. I received a very generous gift certificate, but by then, the products were out of stock. They were worth the wait. 

I’ve made three cards so far—two identical ones with the 3D embossing folder and stencil combo, and one with the Betterpress/Foiling Plate. I like both versions. There’s also a die set which I haven’t gotten to yet. 

The embossing folder also has a die that will cut out the whole branch. I foiled it first, colored it with the stencils, and then ran it through the embossing folder. Spellbinders Color Block Accent Arches made a pretty frame for this card. The sentiment was gold foiled on black cardstock with Spellbinder’s Fancy Sentiment Strips.

The embossing folder also has a die that will cut out the whole branch. I foiled it first, colored it with the stencils, and then ran it through the embossing folder. Spellbinders Color Block Accent Arches made a pretty frame for this card. The sentiment was gold foiled on black cardstock with Spellbinder’s Fancy Sentiment Strips.

The embossing folder also has a die that will cut out the whole branch. I foiled it first, colored it with the stencils, and then ran it through the embossing folder. Spellbinders Color Block Accent Arches made a pretty frame for this card. The sentiment was gold foiled on black cardstock with Spellbinder’s Fancy Sentiment Strips.

Color Hues #140

Nancy is our hostess for the September 1st Color Hues Challenge. When I saw her color combo, Dusty Blue and Brown, I immediately thought of The Greetery’s 3D embossing folders that I’d seen embossed with brown woodgrain cardstock, so that’s where I started.

I’d like to say it came together quickly, but I started with one embossing folder, played around with some options, and then started over with the Pretty Picado suite of products. This is the first time I’ve used the Pretty Picado Stencils, and I also pulled out the Capsule Star Studded Borders for the first time. 

Once the border was embossed I swiped a bit of white ink over it to soften the color and enhance the beautiful embossed pattern.  I used a couple of different blue inks for the stenciling. For the star border, which I love and think I will use a lot, I chose Matte Silver cardstock. The silver embossed sentiment is from the Pretty Picado Stamp set and I added some tiny silver pearls for a bit of shine on the stenciled panel. This shaped card is bigger than an A2 card, but fits nicely in an A7 envelope.

Check out the Color Hues Blog for more inspiration my wonderful Design Team and our talented Guest Designer, Michele, and join us in the gallery. 

I’ll be away when this post goes live, but will send this off to the September NBUS Blog when I get a chance. It’s always good to use a couple more new products!

Another Punny Fish

Earlier I made a card using Concord & 9ths Fish Friends stencils. There are also dies that will cut out the stenciled fish as well as dies that work on their own. This is a CASE of one of the cards on Concord & 9ths blog made by Carissa Wiley. 

I found a great piece of patterned paper to work as the water. It was a single sheet separated long ago from its paper pad so I have no idea where it came from. I added some ink blending to the bottom of the paper to darken the water. I trimmed the panel down just a bit so I had a narrow frame of the dark teal cardstock. I used scraps of C&9th cardstock to cut out the underwater plants and the fish, adding ink blending to all of them.

Once I had the placement figured out, I went to work on the sentiment. The one in the circle is from The Greetery’s Hey, Honeycomb Summer Sentiments and the sub sentiment is from the Something Fishy Sentiments, also by The Greetery. Finally I added quite a few Iridescent Dew Drops from Pinkfresh Studio for water bubbles.

This is my second card for the Seize the Birthday: Punny Sentiments Challenge. It’s off to NBUS as well. The is the debut of the Fish Friends dies and the Hey, Honeycomb . . . Sentiments. The Card Concept is hosting a dual challenge: Summer By The Sea and Christmas in July. I’ve entered twice with Christmas cards, but now I have Clean and Layered card for the summer challenge.

Birthday Fishes

Two of my favorite challenges have coordinated challenges. At Just Us Girls it’s Water, and at Seize the Birthday the challenge is Punny Sentiments. Now they aren’t necessarily coordinated but I have the new Greetery Something Fishy Sentiments so I knew I could put the two together.

Initially, I had another card in mind, and if I have time, I’ll be back with another Punny Fish card. On Monday, however, I got together with two friends, and one of them let me die cut a few of the Something Fishy dies from The Greetery. I die cut them with white cardstock, and then colored them with a combination of ink blending and Copic markers. I love that the fish come with party hats included. I added some glitter to the pom-poms with a Gelly Roll Clear Star pen.

The background was stenciled with a variety of blue/aqua inks and the Simon Says Waves stencil on a panel of Concord & 9th’s Powder cardstock. Once that was done, I’ll out my Sheer Shimmer Sparkle spray and lightly sprayed the background. I like the sublte shimmer and the “water” spots. Tiny black pearls from Amuse were perfect for the fishes’ eyes. The fish were added to the card with thin dimensional tape

The sentiment was stamped with aqua ink on a piece of Powder cardstock and stacked with two additional sentiment dies. Finally the panel was added to a white card base. In addition to JUGS and Seize the Birthday, this is another card for the August NBUS gallery.

Pretty Picado on Repeat

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I don’t get tired of making these Pretty Picado birthday and anniversary cards. Just changing up the color scheme creates a whole different look. There were several pink and orange cared during The Greetery release in May, and I thought they were particularly festive. 


Die cutting takes care of all the elements of this card except for the stamped sentiments. The larger sentiment was stamped and then die cut with a coordinating die. The only trick to putting together this version of the card was being sure the white die cut layer matched the orange embossed layer perfectly. It took two tries. 


All the products work together seamlessly: Capsule Basics, Pretty PIicado die, Pretty Picado Embossing Folder, and the Pretty Picado Sentiments.

I’m sending this off to A Cut Above and Seize the Birthday—both to their Anything Goes category.


We’ve been busy the last two weeks. After the week in Rochester with my daughter and her family, we all came to Lake Diane in Michigan for a week. We haven’t had the best weather, but we’ve rented a large cottage with a variety of table games (ping pong, pool, etc) in the basement. I’m not terribly interested (or very good) at any of that, but I’ve finished two good books. Despite some rain every day (and some heavy downpours), no day was a total wash-out, so we were able to take a boat out, swim, and do some tubing every daylight. We head home tomorrow. 

Happy Birthday!

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Today is my daughter’s birthday, and lucky for us, she’s visiting this week. Her brother and his family are coming for dinner, and we’re having some family photos taken as well. 

I’m doing a much better than usual job of creating with recent purchases. One of the products I liked the most from the recent Greetery release was the Checked Out die. I thought it would be very versatile, and I’m convinced that I was right after making just one card! 

I die cut two from a bright blue cardstock and layered them over a cream card base. I pulled out The Greetery’s Best Bouquets Detail die that I enjoyed using for a recentColor Hues Challenge, this time with pretty yellow and blue flowers. I added some ink blending to the flowers as well as the leaves. This is a nother top notch product from The Greetery. The floral elements as well as the whole bouquet are so easy to assemble.

I wasn’t sure where I wanted to put the sentiment, and tried a variety of dies and banners, but once again, the Gold Foiled Black Greeting Tabs were the perfect answer. It’s elegant and doesn’t cover up much of the bouquet. All in all, it’s a quintessential summer bouquet for an August birthday,

This is off to the AAA Birthday Challenge: Flowers and to NBUS since this is the debut of the Checked Out die.

Woodblock Wednesday-July 2026

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It’s Woodblock Wednesday, and I’m on time this month! When I started this card I thought it would be a second entry into the current Paper Players Sketch challenge. These squares seemed too large for that sketch so I went in a totally different direction. 

The woodblock stamp is one of two sunflower designs by Annette Watkins. The other is a full sunflower, but was definitely too large for the challenge or even this card. After stamping the flower three times, I colored it with Copic markers and die cut each with one of Ellen Hutson’s Essential Squares. I love these dies because each one cuts a frame as well as the square. I thought the framing was especially nice with these flowers.

The striped pattern paper has long been separated from the 6X6 paper pad so I’m not sure of its origins. The sentiment was stamped in dark brown and is an old favorite from Papertrey Ink’s Banner Sentiments. The card base is 6 X 4.5.

Thanks, as always, to Amy for this monthly event. It’s a great reminder to look more closely at the woodblock stamps I saved. Must admit, I wish I’d saved a few more. 

Shortbread Shapes Tiled Birthday Card

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Knowing that the end of July through the middle of September is incredibly busy, I’ve spent most of my crafting time making sure my obligations to the Color Hues and Memory Box Design Teams are completed. Now what time I have can be spent on using some wonderful new products I’ve acquired this summer. 

The Greetery’s Shortbread Shapes: Rectangle Tiles was top on that list. I experimented with a few design ideas, but ended up with a monochomatic card that I’m quite happy with.


After die cutting the Shortbread Shapes Rectangle in Vintage Cream cardstock, I ran it through in the Shortbread Shapes: Rectangle Tiles 3D Embossing Folder. The details are so beautiful, the card doesn’t need much embellishment.


For the sentiment I die cut the Shortbread Shapes Rectangle Label and added just one of the embossed tiles narrowly framed with gold cardstock and a sentiment from the new Simple Everyday Mini Sentiments embossed in gold. I didn’t center  the sentiment top to bottom, so I added three Pinkfresh Studio Gold Pearls. That was a mistake that actually improved the card, and when I make another (as I surely will) the three gold pearls will be right there. 


This card is off to a very special event at Darnell’s NBUS site—be sure to click through to read about the amazing number of cards submitted from 2020 until today created with Never Before Used Stuff! I’ve contributed quite a few myself, but this is the first one for July. It’s also off to Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes. 

 Color Hues #137

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Jules has chosen one of my all-time favorite color combinations for the new Color Hues Challenge: 


I have to thank teammate, Stef Perry, for the inspiration for this card. For our May 1st Color Hues Challenge, she posted a card with the Spellbinder Block Accent Arches. I immediately fell in love with them. It was part of a Spellbinder’s kit, and the arches were already out of stock. I put myself on the wait list, and when they finally arrived, I knew I would use them for this challenge. For the centerpiece, I’ll pulled out an old favorite from The Greetery, Best Bouquet Detals die. I have to say, I love how it all came together.


I die cut the leaves and guide for arranging the florals in black, adding flowers that I die cut and assembled from several hues of red cardstock found in my scraps bin. Then I die cut four floral pieces in metallic gold. 


The original gold berries were too intense for the arrangement so I die cut one in red and slightly offset the gold. Much better. Not long ago I spent an afternoon with my foiling machine, so the Spellbinder’s Fancy Sentiment Strips banner was all set to go, foiled in gold on black. 


The Color Hues Blog is showcasing some fabulous cards by our Design Team and our Guest Designers, Joanne James and Julia Aston. I hope you’ll find some inspiration there and join us in the gallery. 

Birthday Balloons

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The Seize the Birthday Challenge: One or More Numbers came at just the right time. I have a birthday card to share that I made for my great-nephew who turned two recently. 


The Stamp Market’s Balloon Essential dies and Birthday Balloon Greetings are proving to be a good purchase. I’ve used them several times for kids’ birthday cards, but know that switching from the bright colors to metallic balloons will make great cards for adults as well. Once again, I pulled out the Lifestyle Crafts tiny stars embossing folder. It’s so old, I don’t know what it was titled when it was released. I chose a bright Kelly green, orange and yellow color combination. The number 2 was die cut three times with Papertrey Ink’s Block Numbers, also a very old product. 


In addition to Seize the Birthday, this is off to the Neglected Stuff Blog since I pulled out two old products for this card.

Butterflies and Flowers

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I was on the Memory Box Blog yesterday with a new card showcasing the wonderful Wild Leaves and Brilliant Butterflies along with some white flowers from the Arched Flower Basket.


I was on the Memory Box Blog yesterday with a new card showcasing the wonderful Wild Leaves and Brilliant Butterflies along with some white flowers from the Arched Flower Basket.

Although there’s a lot going on here, it’s still a Clean and Simple design because all the “action” is in the circle. The leaves were die cut from very light yellow cardstock and then ink blended with three shades of green. The butterflies were cut from white cardstock and then ink blended after they were assembled. Another of my favorite Memory Box sentiment tabs finished it off.


There is a detailed description on the Memory Box Blog.

Balloons for the Boys

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We have two grand-nephews (both named Finn) whose birthdays come close together. A friend loaned me The Stamp Market Birthday Essentials, Birthday Balloon Greetings, and the accompanying dies. I die cut a huge pile of balloons in different colors and after making these two cards, tucked the rest away for future cards. Once I saw the Birthday Balloon Greetings and dies, I ordered a set of my own. I know I’ll use them on the balloons I tucked away, but I’m quite sure they’ll be pulled out for other birthday cards.

Both cards use the same layout, and the same background (a tiny starts embossing folder by Lifestyle Crafts which has been In my collection for years!) I chose different colors and different sentiments, adding some gold stars to the second card.


I’m sending the second card off to AAA Birthday Challenge: For the Boys.


Thanks for stopping by. I’m enjoying the sunshine and warm weather we’ve been having, but splitting my time between the yard and the craft room. The open window here is blowing in a wonderful warm breeze.


Clean and Simple Birthday Cards

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I pulled out a Penny Black stamp that I have never used to make a birthday card for a friend. The stamp set, Charisma, had four floral images in vases, and I ended up making a set of four cards. It’s always good to have some CAS birthday cards on hand. 



The card design is from Jill Foster, the card designer behind Penny Black. Her introductory videos are fabulous, and one series showcased a variety of designs.



I stamped all four images and colored them with Copic markers and then die cut them with the accompanying dies. I embossed a sheet of cardstock with the Penny Black Textured embossing folder, and then cut four strips with my paper cutter. I adhered them to the bottom of each card and added a narrow strip of white paper above them. 



The sentiment from Penny Black’s Delightful Day was stamped in black.



One of these is off to NBUS, one to Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes, one to Penny Black Saturday Challenge: Anything Goes, and one to Addicted to Stamps and More: Birthdays.

Clean & Simple Birthday

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I have a card for two challenges today–Just Us Girls: Stencil Week and Seize the Birthday: Anything Goes. This card is for my niece, and I am really pleased with its simplicity.


The Folk Garden florals by Pinkfresh Studio have always been a favorite of mine. The stamp contains multiple florals but the die cuts them out separately. I don’t think I’ve ever used just two of them, but I’m pretty sure I’ll do it again. I chose the two florals and then die cut the square panel with Simon Says Stitched Squares.


All the florals were stenciled with the accompanying stencil before die cutting. I chose one of the Memory Box White Gold Foiled Greeting Tabs for the sentiment and then added the two florals with dimensional tape. The stitched square was added to the square cardbase with a panel of dimensional adhesive.

Two for Color Hues #134

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Bonnie has chose Pink and Turquoise for this first of June Color Hues Challenge:

Although I had a few Ideas for this color combo, after I made my first card with The Greetery’s new Pretty Picado suite, I realized it was perfect for a two color challenge. And, due to a slight error in embossing one of the panels, I ended up with two cards! One is a traditional A2 card, and the other is a shaped card. I chose a darker hue of turquoise than in the challenge image above.


I used the Pretty Picado die and Capsule Basics on both cards. On the A2 card I stamped and die cut the greeting with the Pretty Picado stamp and die.


The white die cut fits over a turquoise panel that was run through the Pretty Picado Embossing Folder.


That’s where the second card got its start–I didn’t line the die cut panel up exactly with the embossed panel so had to redo it. There was nothing inherently wrong, however, with the first die cut panel. The Pretty Picado Cutaway die cuts a gorgeous sentiment that perfectly fits in the white oval. It was layered on an oval of turquoise paper.


I used one of the dies from Capsule Basics to create a scalloped oval card base, and added the white panel on the front. Finally, I die cut a pink border with the Capsule Basic Small Fixed Border and die cut the pretty open pattern from the Pretty Picado die. I added a few pink pearls from Memory Box that have been in my stash for years.


Thanks to a generous gift for Mother’s Day I was able to purchase quite a few of the products from The Greetery’s Fête and Fiesta release that just happened to land on my birthday! I’m already having a lot of fun with them–and have so many more cards I want to create.

Be sure to stop by the Color Hues Challenge to check out all the fabulous designs created by the Design Team and our Guest Designer, Kim Miller.

I’m posting one of these on the new Paper Players TicTacToe Challenge, using the diagonal from lower left to upper right: happy sentiment, free, die cut.