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Challenges

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. 

Holiday Robin

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I pulled out the Memory Box Holiday Robin for my post on the Memory Box blog today. I thought this charming fellow with his Santa hat and scarf would look great perched on the Pine Berry Branch from last year’s Christmas release. 

After die cutting, I ink blended all the individual pieces, and assembled the robin, and then did the same with the pine and berry branch. Then I die cut a Round Eyelet Circle Frame and a slightly smaller Basic Circle die from white cardstock and layered them on a Cherry Red card base. I placed Mr. Robin on one of the berry branches with dimensional tape. I snipped the evergreens from a second branch and tucked them behind the robin.


 Next, I added some berries from the Pine and Berries Sprigs (from this year’s release), die cut from Cherry Red cardstock with a coat of Nuvo Crystal Glaze for some dimension. A Gold Foiled Black Tab from the Holiday Wishes set finished the card. 

This is my second helping, as my friend Michele would say, to The Card Concept Challenge: Christmas in July (extending into August). And it’s another Clean and Layered Card.

Christmas Holly Arch

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I’m on the Memory Box blog today with another Christmas card created with several products from the new Christmas Cheer release. I started with one of the white Nested Globes which I added to a card base of Cherry Red cardstock—a perfect Christmas red.


After die cutting the holly from a pretty green paper in the Greenery Paper Pad, I added some ink blending to the base of the holly leaves.  To arrange the holly around the top of the arch, I needed to snip some of the holly branches apart and reassemble them so they would follow the curve of the globe. 


By applying a darker red ink to red cardstock from the Blush Paper Pad I created an ombre panel for die cutting the sentiment. I added it to a vellum shadow layer and then to the white globe. I splattered some gold watercolor paint to create some interest on the white panel which would have been much easier if I had done it before adding the globe to the card base! The beautiful new Perky Bow was added to the center of the arch along with some gold berries. To balance the design I added a holly leaf and some berries to accent the sentiment as well as some gold berries to the holly on the arch.

I’m adding this to the gallery at The Card Concept for the optional challenge: Christmas in July (the challenge is open until the end of August). It’s a Clean and Layered card inspired by the colors red, green, gold, and white. One more Christmas card for the stash!

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.

Color Hues #138

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It’s my turn to be hostess for the new Color Hues Challenge and I chose:

When I decided on this pairing, I know I had something specific in mind, but when it came time to create with it, I had no idea what my inspiration had been. But, it really didn’t matter once I pulled out a very old favorite, Papertrey Ink’s Lovely Layers stamps and dies. I paired it with a brand new (to me) product, Spellbiner’s Molded Frame 3-D Embossing Folder.

I’d forgotten how much I love this stamp and die set. Once I chose the cardstock (pieces from my scrap boxes) it came together quickly. I die cut each shape and then gold embossed the patterns. There is a stamp for the smallest piece in the design, but I really didn’t care for it this time. I die cut a new one, and added three tiny gold pearls with a piece of dimensional tape instead. 

Once the design was assembled, I added it to the Molded Frame die cut from watercolor paper. The Lovely Layers design fit perfectly. The sentiment is from an old favorite Pink & Main’s Special Day sentiments.

Be sure to check out how the Color Hues Design Team interpreted these colors, as well as our wonderful Guest Designer, Rachel Ball. I’ll be anxious to see your creations and I hope you’ll fill up the gallery! 

The Wishful Snowman

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It’s definitely unusual, but this is the second post for today! One of the dies from the Memory Box’s new Christmas Cheer release is a cute snowman, The Wishful Snowman.”  This card went up on the Memory Box blog this morning. I opted to keep it simple, creating a landscape of glittering snow, bare tree branches, and a bright blue sky. 

Although the glittering snowflakes in the sky are hard to detect in the photo, they doe reflect the light when the card is in your hand. I added a gold star to the snowman’s hand. This Wishful Snowman is sending lots of good vibes for a Merry Christmas.

I’m way behind on creating Christmas cards. A couple of years ago I started creating sets of cards each month, so by now, I’d have nearly 70 cards in my stash. Not so much this year, so every single one is a win. I’m sending this off to Addicted to Stamps and More where creating Christmas cards is the current challenge.

Paper Players: Sketch Challenge

A sketch challenge is not often where I start for a card design, but as soon as I saw the sketch from The Paper Players, I knew just what I wanted to do.

One of my recent purchases from The Greetery was the Tile Style stamp set. It’s a beautiful set of tiles in two sizes. I used three of the larger ones for this card. The tiles were stamped and then die cut with one of the Shortbread Shapes: Rectangle Labels.

I embossed the blue panel with a Stampin’ Up embossing folder and added it to a white card base. I purchased the embossing folder several years ago from eBay, and never had the packaging so I don’t know what it’s called. The Thinking of You White Gold Foiled Greeting Tab from Memory Box worked perfectly for the sentiment. The gold foiling prompted me to use two gold hearts die cut from Simon Says Holiday Shapes. They were added with tiny pieces of dimensional tape.

It’s always good to have another encouragement card in the stash.

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. 

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.

Fish Friends

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The current Just Us Girls Challenge looking for stencils was perfect timing. I finally had time to make a card just for fun! During a recent Concord & 9th sale, I picked up the Fish Friends bundle. I don’t have anything like it, and I love the whimsical look of the fish. It also has a wonderful layered die set which I hope to get to soon.


I stenciled the fish with three Concord & 9th inks: Watermelon, Creamsicle and Harbor. When using the Watermelon ink I varied the pressure to add some darker areas to the fish bodies. It’s a 6X6 stencil, so I cut it down with Gina K’s Master Layout #1 dies, and layered it on a Stamp Market Sea Glass A2 card base. Interestingly, the C&9th Harbor cardstock wasn’t as good a match as the more aqua Sea Glass. 


The sentiment is from My Favorite Things, Bitty Birthday Wishes. I added quite a few clear drops by Pinkfresh Studio thinking they looked a bit like water bubbles. 

In addition to Just Us Girls, I’m sending this off to the Stencil Fun Challenge, a last entry to June’s NBUS and an entry to Darnell’s I.D.E.A.S. This is a fifth week so the S stands for Stencils.

Happy Anniversary

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When @thegreetery introduced the Pretty Picado suite of products, Betsy made a beautiful wedding card with white and cream. I used the same colors for an anniversary card for my niece and her husband. The main panel is backed with gold metallic cardstock, and the beautiful dies from Pretty Picado and the Capsule Basics suite do all the rest of the work!


This is going to be a “go to” for anniversary cards for awhile. I’ll need to make a list of who I send them to so they don’t get the same card two years in a row!

I’m sending this off To Addicted to Stamps and More: Diecuts or Stencils.

Abstract Mountain

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Father’s Day was Sunday. My cards were done on time, but this is the first time I’ve had time to edit photos and get a blog post written. Some unexpected commitments have kept me busy in the craft room, but it will be awhile before I can share them.

In addition to the Father’s Day cards, I needed a masculine birthday card. I thought the Ellen Hutson Abstract Mountain die would be great for both. I tried a new technique which didn’t work all that well, so went back to ink blending and using cardstock to piece together the scenes. It makes sense to make multiples with this die since you have make die cuts of six different colors of cardstock. I ended up with four inkblended skies that I liked so had two Father’s Day cards (one for Matt and one for Tracy) and two birthday cards. My son-in-law in Wisconsin got a gift certificate with the Father’s Day message.


While I was looking for something else, I came upon this Reverse Confetti Stitched Window Cover Panel. It works really well with the Abstract Mountain die, but only three of the mountains show. All the rest of the cards were die cut with an Ellen Hutson Essential Arches die and in the end I prefer them. (All four of the photos were taken at the same time, in the same place. Why this one has a blue cast to it is anyone’s guess. I thought I’d be able to color correct it, but neither my phone’ editing progam or Photoshop Elements wanted to cooperate tonight.)

The sentiments for both of these cards are from Pink & Main’s Special Day stamp set.


The birthday sentiments are from Memory Box, Black Gold Foiled Happy Birthday Tabs.

The AAA Birthday Challenge: For the Boys is still open so I’ll send a second entry off to them. This is a very old die set so I’m sending one off to The Neglected Stuff Challenge as well.

Color Hues 135

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Carol has chosen the new colors for the 135th Color Hues.Challenge:

I purchased the Spellbinders Sunflower Serenade last summer but have never used it. I wanted a Clean and Simple card and it was just perfect. I die cut it from yellow cardstock and added some ink blending to the middle of the flower before adding the centers in two shades of brown (one of our acceptable neutrals.) 


Two squares were cut with Ellen Hutson’s Essential Squares. A slightly smaller one from My Favorite Things Black and White Basics paper pack and one size larger from black cardstock. I miss MFT; their patterned paper packs are one of my favorites. After layering those onto a white card base, I added the sunflower with a square of dimensional tape. 


The sentiment is one of Memory Boxes Gold Foiled Greeting Tabs. After adding the greeting, I wanted some gold with the sunflower. I tried a couple gold leaves, but they were too much, so I went with my favorite Pinkfresh Studio gold pearls.


Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your visit and your comments as well! I hope you’ll hop over to the Color Hues Challenge blog to check out the fabulous designs created by our team and our Guest Designers, Barbara Campbell and Diana K. We would love to see you add a card to our gallery. It’s open until 9:00 am on June 29th.  

This card is off to Darnell’s NBUS and to the A Cut Above Challenge—Anything Goes with a die cut.

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.


Just a Note

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I’m on the Memory Box blog today with a sentiment-focused notecard using flowers from the Arched Flower Basket, the Woven Flower Basket and the Flower Basket Bouquet dies. I used the largest of the Cinched Frame dies to create a shaped card. The front panel was cut from a pretty teal paper from the Lagoon Paper Pack. I die cut a second frame from white cardstock (so it’s easy to write a note!). I scored about 3/8” down from the top of the white panel to create a hinge and glued the two pieces together.



The next step was to cut a third Cinched Frame in white for the focal panel. I chose a teal cardstock just a shade darker from the Lagoon pack for the sentiment, die cut and stacked three of the Just a Note dies before adding them to the center of the front panel.



Then I just needed to arrange my flowers which were die cut from various papers in the Lagoon, Sunrise, Blush, and Greenery paper pads. I’m sending this off to the Word Power Challenge (focal point is the sentiment) and A Cut Above Challenge—die cuts!