Concord & 9th Happy Heart Boxes

Hello friends.  Just a fun post today...no challenges!  And no cards.  Just a long overdue playdate with a set of dies I bought over a year ago and had never even opened the package, let alone made anything with the dies!  Until I was inspired by my sweet friend Birgit who had ordered the same set of dies and actually used hers!  (See Birgit's post HERE)  

The die set I'm talking about is from Concord & 9th and is called Happy Heart Box Dies.  They are so easy to put together and FUN to decorate, and I made 3 of them for Valentine's Day (One for my mom and the other 2 will go to the foreign exchange students our oldest daughter and her family are hosting this year.)  

I'm pretty tickled with the way they turned out, and especially since I'm dealing with a bum left arm/hand (think I pulled/pinched a muscle/nerve in my neck and it's mostly affecting my left arm and hand...grrrr!!  Thank goodness I'm right handed, but you don't realize how much you really do use the other hand until you don't have use of it.). 

 This is the box that will be going to my mom and uses PTI's Into The Blooms: Roses and the fern from PTI's Into The Blooms: Dahlias dies.  I also added a sprig of Baby's Breath (die from The Greetery) and the LOVE tag from the Happy Hearts Box Dies set.

I did tie some sheer white ribbon (Michael's) around the perimeter of the top of the box for a little something extra.

This box uses PTI's Into The Blooms: Dahlia dies for the flowers and also the fern from the same set.  The white heart behind the flowers was embossed with Spellbinders Stylized Trellis ef and I used a Gina K Swiss Dots ef on my mom's box.  The X's & O's on this box are from The Greetery's Hot Stuff Sentiments stamp and die set, and I finished with a few Iridescent Clear Drops from PFS.

All 3 have been filled with chocolate hearts and will make for a fun and happy treat.  Thought about making 3 more for my grandbabies, but quickly decided they're too young yet for me to spend that amount of time on something they will rip apart to get to the candy!  But don't worry...Nana has them covered with treat bags that will be full of sweets!

Although I'm not entering these boxes into any challenges, I will add them to Darnell's NBUS #46 since it took me over a year to actually use these sweet dies!

  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Double D Challenge - SNOW

Hello friends.  Winter has returned to Michigan after the break we've had since the blizzard Christmas weekend, so it seemed appropriate to play along with the Double D Challenge titled SNOW!

The mood board almost makes Winter look fun, doesn't it?!  (Gotta LOVE that car!!!)  I'm not a snow fan anymore, although I do admit that it is beautiful...from the inside!  Haha!!  So anyways, here's my SNOW card...

I have always loved silhouette and ink blended cards (Gina K turned me into a fan of it!), but this past year I have really started falling in love with Lavinia stamps and the beautiful (and fun and whimsical) scenes created with these stamps!  I had held off buying any though until Leslie Miller started showing some cards she had been making with the stamps (like this one HERE that I absolutely LOVE!!!), and then I couldn't help myself and had to buy a few!  I started by tearing a piece of cardstock to use as a mask to make my snow hills, and then used Distress Inks (Spun Sugar, Salty Ocean, Stormy Sky, & Faded Jeans) to blend my sky.  

A little splattering with just plain water made my falling snow, and then I started inking up my stamps in black for the silhouette look.  The trees are Forest Scene (LAV524) and Christmas Tree Group (LAV021) and the bunny is Lori (LAV602).  I couldn't bring myself to add a sentiment to the front, so added it to the inside and just attached my panel to a top folding white card base.  Not too bad for a first try with these stamps, and yes, I do want more and to play more!!  (It's ok, I know I have an addiction to stamps and really don't have any desire to be cured!)

The DT has some AWESOME inspiration for you if you'd like to play along (HERE) and the challenge is open till Sunday, Jan. 29th @ 8:00PM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Peace On Earth Challenge #32

Hello friends.  Trying to stay true to my plan to keep making Christmas cards all year long, and the Peace On Earth Challenge has the most beautiful mood board to inspire right now...

Isn't that just the prettiest mood board with all the beautiful birds?!  My hubby and I love watching them all year long, but especially during Wintertime, so it was a no brainer to play along!  I also had a new EF/Die to play with thanks to my sweet friend Bobby who mistakenly ordered two and shared one with me!  Gotta love stampin' friends...thanks again so much Bobby!!  

I made a pretty CAS card starting with SSS's Pepperberry EF/Dies with white cs and matted with a piece of Cherry Cobbler (SU!) cs.  I cut 2 of the matching 3 dies that come with the EF out of white cs also, and then colored them with a few Copics.

I couldn't resist pulling out an oldie but a goody chubby little birdie from PTI's Brushed Birds and inking him up with tans, browns and some red.  I also added a bit more red using an R89 Copic on the sweet little guy.

I finished by adding a strip sentiment from Gina K and a few red glitter drops and silver pearls from PFS.  

The talented DT has some awesome inspiration for you, so check it all out right HERE and then play along.  This challenge is open till Feb. 2nd @ 8:00PM. 
 

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Color Hues #56 - PINK & RED

Hello friends.  It's time for another challenge at Color Hues and this time we would like to see PINK and RED.

These colors definitely make me think Valentine's Day, but I really needed to work on my depleted birthday card stash!  This card could totally be used for a Valentine's Day birthday though, so I guess you could say I'm combining the two!!  I used a favorite die set from Spellbinders that I bought this past Fall called Parcel & Post Mailbox and came up with this...

I know that I'm not the only one that thinks this is a FABULOUS die set because I've seen many, many people out there using it, but this color combination of pink & red was just too perfect not to use on this card!  I started by embossing my background with a new Spellbinders embossing folder called Heart Blooms and then built my mailbox and leaves and blooms from red, pink, & white cs.

I also used red ink to sponge around the edges of my mailbox and a few of the leaves and the envelope too.  The sentiment was embossed in white using Spellbinders Parcel & Post Sentiments stamp set, and then I finished the card with some red and clear Stickles, and also a few red & pink sparkling gems from PFS.

We have a lot of inspiration for you using these colors and would LOVE to see you in our gallery right HERE.  This challenge is open till the 29th @ 9:00AM, so come and join in the FUN!!

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Peace On Earth Challenge #31

Hello friends.  Hope you're not tired of seeing Christmas cards?!!  I slacked off quite a bit last year and ended up having to make last minute cards and am bound and determined NOT to do that again, so you will be seeing Christmas cards every couple of weeks!  The Peace On Earth Challenge is a great one to keep me on track and they have a wonderful mood board that inspired me to pull out a PFS stencil and NBUS stamp/die combo.

I was inspired by the trees in the bottom right photo (minus the red wagon...wish I had one!!) and all the trees the DT used on their inspiration cards!  Here's what I came up with...

I used PFS's Wintry Forrest stencils and light, medium, & dark Spruce inks (Gina K) to make my graduated tree lines (stenciled 5 times).  The sentiment is from Penny Black and is a stamp and die set that I've had for years and never used.

I added a strip of torn white cardstock to the bottom of my card to add my sentiment to so that it would show up better than stamping over the tree line.  I die cut the "mountain" twice for a bit of dimension and also added some TH Distress Glitter to the torn edges for a bit of snowy sparkle.

Had to show you the inside of the card so you could see the rest of the words to one of my favorite Christmas songs...it's one of those melodies that gets stuck in your head!

There's lots of beautiful inspiration from the DT that you can find right HERE if you'd like to play along.  Better be quick though as this challenge closes on the 12th @ 8:00PM.

Also adding this card to Darnell's NBUS Challenge #46 since it took me over two years to FINALLY use the sentiment stamp/die set!!  

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Double D Challenge - HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY!

Hello friends.  I'm playing along with the Double D Challenge where they are celebrating their 7th BIRTHDAY!!

Don't you just love how colorful, happy, and FUN this mood board looks?!  How could you not resist playing along?!!  And since I need to replenish my birthday card stash, this challenge came at just the right time!!  

When my sweet friend Loll was clearing out some of her older stamps last year, she shared a few with me including this adorable Penny Black  image called Bear-y Wishful.  Here's what I made with it...

 Isn't he a cutie?!  I colored him up with my Copics (W1, W2, & W4) and then die cut him out.  I also colored the candles included in the set with some colorful Copics and added Glossy Accents to the flames.  (When I stamped and colored the bear image, I also stamped a 2nd image and fussy cut just the arm so I could pop it up for some dimension where he's holding the one candle to blow it out.)

I also used a favorite die of mine right now from The Greetery called Ribbon Maker: Pinked Stars Die and centered that onto my top folding card base.  I used the same color Copics that I had used on the candles to color the punched out stars before gluing them back into their spots...love how it added some more color to this fun and whimsical card!

A little hard to see, but I did add some WOS to the colored stars and candles to add a little bit of sparkle to my card, and then finished with the sentiment that's included in the set and a piece of black & white baker's twine.  Pretty simple card, but I think that CUTE little bear steals the show and will definitely bring a smile to someone's face!!

Lots of FABULOUS inspiration from the DT, so if you need to work on your birthday card stash, hop on over right HERE and play along!  And wish the Double D a very HAPPY, HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY while you're there!  I sure do!!!  :0)

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!

Color Hues #55 - Light Pink & Gold

Hello friends.  Happy New Year and welcome back to another fun and exciting year at the Color Hues Challenge!  I am just tickled Pink to tell you that I am ONE of the new DT members for the Color Hues Challenge, and our amazing leader Nancy is hosting this 1st challenge of 2023 with the colors LIGHT PINK & GOLD.

I am from Michigan and right now it is definitely WINTER, so my first thought with these colors was to go with a snowflake theme.  Since I am not too thrilled with the weather outside right now though, I decided to follow my first love, and that is FLOWERS!!  Other than Christmas stamps, I think 90% of my stamps are florals!!  So, I pulled out a favorite from Pinkfresh Studios called Magnolias and came up with this...

I started by gold embossing my flower and leaf images and then stenciling just the floral images in Ballet Slipper and Sparkling Rose inks (PFS).  I die cut my images twice so I could stack them for just a bit of dimension.

I gold foiled my background using The Greetery's Deco Triangles Hot Foil Plate, and then matted it to a layer of gold mirror cs, and then adhered both layers to a top folding white card base.  I arranged my flowers and leaves and then added a die cut sentiment from Memory Box's Just a Note Posh Script using more of the gold mirror cs.  (I also added a few more die cut layers for a bit more dimension on my sentiment.)  I finished off this soft and pretty card with a few Glitter Drops: Blush from PFS.

So which way will YOU use these two colors??  Make sure you check out all the FABULOUS inspiration from the rest of the talented DT (including the other 2 talented newbies Jules & Steph), and then play along with us right HERE.  This challenge ends on the 14th @ 9:00AM.

Thanks for stopping by today ... I love it when you do!