As soon as I saw the Just Us Girls Moodboard for inspiration this week, I knew exactly what I wanted to use.

I bought Iconic Christmas from My Favorite Things four years ago when it was released. I thought it was just charming, but could never face the prospect of stamping and die cutting all the small images. This NBUS item was in the Christmas bin labeled: Use it or Purge It! I'm so glad I found the inspiration to put it to use. It is, indeed, charming. The process of stamping and die cutting was a bit easier after watching a video by Yana Smakula. You can see right away that what inspired me was the scattered pattern of tiny images. Mine are more clustered than scattered, but I think you'll see the inspiration.

I die cut many more images so I'd have choices about how to group them together. After arranging them, I glued some of them to the card panel, and added dimensional tape to others. The little stars were stamped and gold embossed. To add some more fun to the card, I scattered some Pinkfresh Studio Clear Gems with Gold Dust. The sentiment is from Reverse Confetti's Christmas Card Greetings. Sadly, neither MFT nor Reverse Confetti are still in business.

The cream cardstock panel as well as the gold metallic "frame" were die cut with Gina K's Masterlayout #1. They were then added to a Pure Poppy card base. I'm happy to have another Christmas card in the stash, and I do believe I'll come back to this set again. This is off again to Darnell's NBUS collection. 

To my surprise, one of the dies I discovered in the NBUS box was a small floral from Waffle Flower, Folk Art Floral. I don't remember purchasing it, but it made the perfect flower for a Christmas card in the round. The Christmas Kickstart Challenge is Merry Go Round. After die cutting a few of the florals I made three Christmas cards. Two are this design:

After die cutting and assembling the floral, I die cut the largest of The Greetery's Nordic Circles. The sentiment is embossed in gold from Penny Black's Happy & Bright.

I added a gold pearl to the center of the floral, and three more below as an embellishment. It's still a very CAS design.

For the second card, I layered the florals to create a more dimensional flower. The rest of the design remained the same.

In addition to The Christmas Kickstart Challenge, I'm adding this to Addicted to Stamps and More: Christmas.

 

 

 

Unlike the last post where I used recently purchased products, the Waffle Flower Postage Collage Cupcake stencil and Hey, Cupcake stamp set have sat in the NBUS box for several months. When I set the goal of using 31 unused products in 31 days, I knew this was one I really wanted to put to use. Like the Grand Finale set from the last post, this set will see a lot of use. It's good for kids, teens, and adults, and there are so many colors that can be used with it. 

The stencils are very easy to use and line up nicely. I decided on pinks and teals and had a lot of fun playing with this set. I added some details to the candles with a white gel pen, and some Rock Candy Glitter for a sugary topping on the cupcakes.

I sent an earlier card to Seize the Birthday Anything Goes. This one's for the current theme: Food or Drink. And it's another for NBUS. I hope to fill up the gallery by the end of the month.

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Not all the products in my NBUS box have been there for months. Some are more recent and the Grand Finale die and stencil set by The Greetery are a more recent purchase. When I look at purchasing new products I want to be sure I can use them for a variety of occasions and groups of people. These, like the Yay! product suite also by The Greetery will work for birthdays, all kinds of celebrations, and a wide age-range of recipients. I used the Yay! for two graduations this spring and summer, and expect to use Grand Finale multiple times as well. This card (the second one I created) went to a stamping buddy of mine who celebrated her birthday recently. 

The die etches a wonderful design on the card as well as openings on each of the fireworks. I backed the panel with silver holographic paper and then stenciled the pink and orange bursts. 

You can get a sense of the sparkle from the holographic paper in this photo. I also used it to die cut the sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Bold Borders: Wave. I stacked three white die cuts of the sentiment under the holographic paper for some dimension. I added Pinkfresh Studio's Clear Iridescent Drops for some added sparkle. 

The die set also includes some small pinwheels which you'll see in the next card. Here I added one on the inside. It also uses some of the holographic paper.

The inside sentiment is from an old set from Papertrey Ink. Several years ago, I decided to remove the stamps from the CD cases that Papertrey Ink used for their stamps. I put them on acetate and was sometimes able to peel off the label to add to the cardstock I backed them with. If not, I wrote the name of the set on the paper. Somehow neither of those happened so I have no idea what set this is from. I still have one box of Papertrey Ink stamps that remain in their CD cases. I lost all interest in repackaging the rest of them. 

Here's the first card I made. It uses all the same products, but I added some pinwheels to the front. I thought it was too busy, but ultimately my husband and I decided it was OK. Nonetheless, I much prefer the second, cleaner-looking card. 

I'm sending the first card to Seize the Birthday (anything goes) and to Darnell's NBUS.

 

 

I rarely am cutting it so close to a challenge as I am today. It's Theme Week at The Paper Players and the theme, chosen by Stef, my teammate at Color Hues, is Circles. I've been thinking about the challenge off and on all week. Last night, however, instead of crafting, I started sorting and purging my precut diecuts, card fronts, images to color, etc. As I was working through them I came upon an envelope filled with precut black and white circles from the Simon Says Geometric Circle Dies. There was also a group of circles cut with patterned paper, and the answer to the call for circles.

Instead of sitting right down and getting to it, I ended up watching the second installment of the Ken Burns documentary on Lewis & Clark. We're planning to drive that route in the fall, and it's a fascinating look at the perils and challenges of exploring the west in the early 1800's. 

So this morning, when we got home from the gym, I sat down and came up with a birthday card I'm quite pleased with. It's a good masculine card, and I have more circles to play with later.

It took awhile to figure out how to arrange the circles, but once I die cut some squares from Ellen Hutson's Essential Squares, the card came together pretty quickly. I attached the squares onto a panel die cut with Gina K's Masterlayout 1, and added the circles with dimensional tape. Two small red enamel dots provide a bit of color.

The sentiment is from Memory Box's Black Tabs series. Always a good choice when I need a premade sentiment. I still have a few hours before the challenge closes so it's off to The Paper Players!

I'm right on track with making my Christmas cards. I have a goal to make a set of 10 each month. So far, I've only missed one month so I'm halfway there. I do occasionally make a card for a challenge as well. As soon as I saw the Jingle Belles Challenge for Poinsettias, I knew I had the perfect die in my NBUS box to start. I also knew that one of my very old Poppy Stamps dies would work as well.

I recently purchased the Simon Says Hanging Leaf Ring. It comes with a set of floral dies, but I knew the Small Blooming Poinsettia die from Poppy Stamps would work beautifully here. I did cut the Ellen Hutson Lattice Background from black cardstock and added it to a black panel before adding both to a gold panel. The card base is Papertrey Ink's Vintage Cream which I also used for the circle inside the ring.

The sentiment is from Spellbinder's Wonderful Christmas stamp set which was one of the monthly offerings last year. I don't think I've used it before, but the font seemed just right for this design. At the last minute I added two gold leaves from the poinsettia dies and then some Gold Glitter Pearls from Pinkfresh Studio. 

This is also off to NBUS–one more product out of the NBUS box!

 

Today is my granddaughter, Maddy's, ninth birthday. She's celebrating her birthday on Nantucket–what could be better? Before she left on vacation we went on a birthday shopping trip. She turns out to be one great shopper. She knows where she wants to go, and when she gets there she makes good choices. She had the choice of opening her card that day. But she chose to take it to Nantucket to open today. Hopefully, she'll be pleased with it. All of my grandchildren are fans of The Greetery's Honeycomb products, and the ice cream cone seemed perfect for a July birthday. 

I finally have the dies for the What's the Scoop? stamp set, and they are so much fun–adding a chocolate topping that creates sprinkles. Also new for this card is the Frosted Frames die. The patterned papers were in a box with older papers from my scrapbooking days. 

I added a few enamel dots for embellishment, and it was done.

I made two other ice cream cards with the Hey, Honeycomb Ice Cream Cone. They're all similar, but all three have different backgrounds. 

This one has a foiled background with The Greetery's Ticker Tape, and die cut with The Stitched Scallop, also by The Greetery. You can see the foiling better in this photo:

And finally with the honeycomb opened up.

The background for the next card was stamped with Concord and 9th's Celebration Turnabout stamp, and die cut once again with the Stitched Scallop die.

I don't often enter more than two or maybe three challenges at a time, but this is an exception.The AAA Birthday Challenge and The Four Seasons Challenge are looking for Summer cards. Festive Friday's current theme is National Ice Cream Day. Maddy's card has sprinkles, a cone, and ice cream for the Festive Friday Challenge. And at Just Us Girls, it's Die Cut Week with Summer Things as the theme.

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