simon says stamp - mum die

It may not be the easiest to shop and get delivery of goodies these days, but Simon Says Stamp has some newly released items that we are sharing with you today. And according to Heidi, owner of the store, as of yesterday shipping has now resumed, albeit at a slower pace!

The new release is called Sunny Days Ahead. One of the products in the new release is the Mum Word and Shadow die and lucky me, I got to have a play with it. Clearly, this would be a great product for creating Mother's Day cards, but I lost my own "mum" about three years ago. You can bet I had her in mind as I was in my craft room playing with this word die.

Rainbow colors happened...

 SSS Mum Word and Shadow die
Altenew Watercolor Pan
SSS Sentiment Strips Reverse Love

I painted the rainbow with a wide, flat brush and then adhered the gold, stacked "mum" and a sentiment strip. Simple. But true.

For my second card, I used up the leftover watercolors from the rainbow to paint some die cut roses. I started with the most watered down tone on the top layer and then added more pigment for each subsequent layer. The sentiment was die cut from glitter cardstock and I stamped a "wishing you only the best" sentiment from an older SSS stamp set, Apothecary Labels, inside.

SSS Mum Word and Shadow die
Altenew Rose Flurries die
Altenew Watercolor Pan
vellum 

I have one more card for you, this was the result of wondering which other word dies I had that could work with "mum". I chuckle about this card - it's a mixing of British and American English at its best ;)  How dare I, eh?

SSS Mum Word and Shadow die

SSS You Da Best die

SSS Large Hearts Set die

The only question was a color scheme (I had some recycled pink cardboard in my hand and chose black to show it off) and where to place the die cut heart! 

Check out all the makes with the products from the release in the gallery here. And watch for the hops this weekend too.

I'm adding my second card to the SSS Wednesday Challenge where it's all about Flowers this week. The perfect theme!

CASEplorations May

Happy May Day! Even though my yard is full of Spring flowers, the weather still hasn't decided exactly what it wants to do.

We at CASEplorations, want you to CASE the flowery card from our fearless leader, Shery Russ, this month. It's even got a Mother's Day theme if you need to get a card made. You can check out Shery's card in her blog post here. Here's my CASE.

I stuck with the pink and yellow color combo, keeping yellow more prevalent cuz my Mom doesn't like pink ;) I love how pink and yellow mix to yield orange. Mom will like that little touch.

On watercolor paper, I first inked up my ARTplorations Daisy Dance stencil with Mustard Seed, spritzed it and "stamped" it. When dried a bit, I put the stencil down and sponged Worn Lipstick through it like normal. Removed the stencil and gave it a light spritz of water to mingle the colors a little bit.

Stamped the sentiment from Big on Words - Mom and the coordinating bloom from Bloom Sketches three times in black and added Black Soot splatters to my panel and cardbase.

Die cut the panel and adhered it.

We would love to see you CASE Shery's card and hook it up in the CASEplorations gallery this month. There are prizes to be had as always and the gallery is open until the end of the month.

I'm heading to the gallery at Addicted to Stamps and More with this card. It's Anything Goes!

And over at Mod Squad where the theme is Mother's Day.

CASEplorations May

If you're looking for my mixed media projects today, they're here.

If you're looking for my Winnie & Walter April/May release projects, they're here.

Happy May Day! As you read this I am out doing our Three Tower Hike through our beautiful wine valley that is in full bloom right now. But it's CASEplorations time over at STAMPlorations today and that's why you're here. We've got a quiet beauty up for the CASEing this month , check out the DT's CASES here.

We're CASEing Kim Makortoff of Art Keeps Me Sane. You probably know her, maybe even from the STAMPlorations blog. Kim joins us frequently with her beautiful creations. Check out this beauty we've chosen to CASE. Isn't that white on kraft splendid?

Source: Kim Makortoff

On to my CASE. I've used kraft and white, the Mother's Day theme and some blooms... plus a little bit more for my card.

First I stamped three roses from Blossom Overture tone-in-tone along the edge of my kraft panel. I went a bit crazy with the Mother's Day card idea and created my own subway art sentiment (and heat embossed it in white) from Blossom Overture, Sentiment Builders: Thank You, City Girl, Sentiment Builders: Happy and Subway Art : Mom's the Word.

Added some stitching, Me and my Big Ideas PP and an enamel heart and voila! This is off to poor Mom who is having issues with her WiFi. And the problem is, neither she nor Dad (Dad conveniently keeps himself out of all technology-related issues) really have a clue about any of it. Gotta give 'em credit for "doing" iPads and Internet at all, I suppose.

I'm joining the Anything Goes mayhem at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge. Gotta give those gals credit. They are busy, busy, busy.

Remember, if you feel like CASEing this card, or any of the DT Inspiration Projects coming up during the month of May, you can hook up your creations here. We'd love to see what you come up with.

idea for mom

Sharing a published card with you today. Maybe for Mother's Day. Maybe just to say thanks.

Relied on PP for this one. The stripes are from Plus One by Amy Tangerine 12x12 and the floral for the die cut from Studio Calico Print Shop. The thanks die is Savvy and the Mom stamp STAMPlorations. A stream of heart confetti finished it off.

This was to be published in the May 2015 issue of Paper Crafts and Scrapbooking. Oh well.

thanks mother, thanks city crafter

I'm so happy to be joining the lovely ladies at City Crafter Challenge as guest designer this week. What a lovely theme Kirsty has chosen - "Tell someone they matter". Yep. Do it today. Don't wait for tomorrow.

This one's going out to my mom. She's always been there for me. Probably my #1 fan. I'm happy that I'll be seeing her in just a few days when I take a vacation from my family (tee hee hee) to spend some one-on-one time with my folks. And Michigan temperatures.

For my card I pulled out PP from My Mind's Eye and Glitz. Yippie. Only 999.999 more sheets to use up! The heart frame is from the SSS Heart in a Box die. The sentiment is heat embossed from STAMPlorations Bold Sentiments: Hello and paired with a Dymo label. I trapped a wood veneer heart lacquered with red nail polish behind the vellum in the frame and two chevrons covered with gold glitter Smooch up in the left corner. And added some lovely yellow sequins.

Thanks so much for having me, City Crafter.

simply create too 77

It's a Mother's Day (or Something for a Female) challenge over at Simply Create Too. Here's what I did.

And the coolest thing? When the spinner flips over you get "WOW"!

Recognize the Freshly Made Sketches # 169?

Thanks for looking. Check out what the rest of the DT created and join in. Why not get a Mother's Day card made ahead of time? Happy weekend :)

mother - my #1 fan

Take a 12x12 Heidi Swapp sunshine stencil that's been sitting out on my workspace for weeks. Add a celebratory challenge over at Anni's blog where she wants us to use stencils. Throw in a drop-dead gorgeous card of Anni's that I ran across while perusing her blog and my desire to finally use one of my STAMPlorations MOM Subway Art stamps as it was originally intended... as subway art.

This is the wild and crazy-ness that results...

Stencilled the sun rays onto PP with acrylic paint. Heat embossed the subway art and some vines onto a die cut label. Added some die cut leaves and two roses too.

Ahhh, the roses. Made them awhile back but I stamped them with ink and white acrylic paint onto CS that I had distress inked.  And splattered. If I did anything else to them, I don't remember!

Should your eyes be having seizures, I apologize.

Whether you are a mother or daughter or both... have a beautiful Mother's Day.  I'd rather be there to give her a hug, but my Mom's getting a GC to Red Lobster this year and she's gonna love me for that!  Shrimp, run for your lives...

Supplies for mother:

Paper:  CS Bringmann, stripe PP Echo Park, damask PP Pink Petticoat

Stamps: STAMPlorations, vine Autumn Leaves, roses Viva Decor

Ink : Versamark, Distress Inks

Tools: stencil Heidi Swapp, label die Spellbinders, leaves die Kesi Art

Other: acrylic paint, white embossing powder

prologue to danke (STAMPlorations, SSS)

Yesterday I told you about how I was inspired by Joni A. and her way with cards.  And with this card in mind, I was going to heat emboss the damask pattern on the cardbase, then stencil it halfway up onto the focal panel too before adding the peony.  Or so I thought.

First mistake... I stencilled the Wild Honey onto the cardbase but forgot to apply embossing powder while it was damp.  And I was too scared to dab my Versamark ink pad over the inked areas for fear of contaminating it. Um.

So I figured I'd just leave it as is and attach the peony right to the cardbase.  Maybe not such a bad idea since the bloom is so huge.  Off to watercoloring it was.

Next mistake... I started with Festive Berries, then Picked Raspberry.  And then an hour later that bloom was just way too "in your face" and I wasn't happy with the stamens I had traced with a black marker OR with my shading.  TIP: When watercoloring, start with your lightest color and work up to the darker shade(s)!

So this was roughly what I had.

But didn't like. That's when these pieces got set off to the side and yesterday's card was born.  And since I forgot to wipe the Wild Honey off my stencil before starting with the blue on that card, I got yellow + blue = green.  Now you know what happened in that upper right corner of yesterday's card!  So back to this one... After wondering "what would Joni do?" (and I would love to know what Joni would have done at this stage)  I continued with this adventure.

Had two ideas.  First I thought about adding some blue to the base and adhering the bloom kinda vertically along the right edge, chopping off part of it. (Maybe I should have...) Then I decided to banish it to the inside, also chopped off.  Then I envisioned a window for some of it to peek through. And it became a Mother's Day card with a sentiment from Jane's Doodles Mother's Flowers.

Looking at that photo of the inside now, it could have been a typical Maria card front ;)  But I was pretending to be Joni, remember? So, out came some heat embossing and more distress inking, this time with Peacock Feathers.

I cut apart my STAMPlorations Mom Subway Art Builders #1 stamp and created the embossed BG before inking. Oh, and the window was born thanks to a Spellbinders Label One die.

Not earth shattering.  But not in the wastebasket either ;)

I'm playing at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "Journey".  Cuz it certainly was a journey to arrive at this card.

Have a wonderful day, friends.  Thanks for coming by.

Supplies for mom:

Paper: Bringmann, watercolor (Target for kids)

Stamps: bloom Stampendous, Mom STAMPlorations, sentiment Jane's Doodles

Ink : Distress Ink, Versamark

Tools: stencil Prima, scissors, die Spellbinders

Other: white embossing powder, paintbrush, Sharpie