Nature's Beauty - Snow Bunny

 This is the second card I made using the bunny from the Nature's Beauty stamp set. This time I paired the bunny with the Winter Wonder stamp set and the Stitched  Nesting Dies Label Dies

All the stamping is done on Crumb Card card stock And the white colouring on the bunny and birch  trees is done with a white deco pen as my white gel pen had dried up

The birch trees were stamped using tab stamping on the stamparatus. 

The bunny and twigs were stamped onto a nesting label die cut. The bunny was coloured white , Puffs of snow were added to the twigs and snowflakes added to the sky.

 The die cut has a double stitched edge. The outer stitched edge was cut away so that another same size die cut in dazzling glimmer paper could peek out along the edges.

This was added to a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock stamped all along the long side with birch trees. The stamp used is from Winter Woods. The stamp has 3 tree stems on it so I used the Stamparatus to help with the even spacing. Again the white deco pen was used to add the white birch markings. Then I used the fine tip pen to add tiny snow markings between the trees.

Dimensionals were used to add this to the DSP layered onto a Crumb Cake cardstock base

Supplies Used:

Stamps:  Nature’s Beauty, Winter Woods. Itty bitty Greetings

Inks: Black Memento, White Deco pen

Papers: Crumb Cake, Dazzling Diamond glimmer paper, In Good Taste DSP

Accessories:  Stitched Nesting Label Dies, Dimensionals

Enjoy Your Retirement - Freshly Made Sketches # 430 and Fab Friday #187 An Eclipse Technique

This masculine retirement card, using the Eclipse Technique, was made for the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches #430 and Fab Friday #187

On a 4 4/5 by 5" piece of Very Vanilla card stock, the image of the dock was stamped off  twice to create a faded background on the art piece.

The center of  this art piece was then die cut with  a Stitched Nesting Die.  The art piece, without the die cut was adhered to a Soft Suede card base.  The die cut was reinserted into the die cut space, and adhered with dimensionals.

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On a separate piece of Whisper White, the images of the boat, 2 oars and a little frog were stamped, coloured with Stampin' Blends and then die cut with the Dockside Dies.

The boat was added on the die cut, next to the dock using dimensionals. The oars were added on top of the boat.

A sentiment, from Itty Bitty Greetings, was  punched with the Classic Label Punch and matted with a larger Soft Suede punch.  The little die cut frog is perched on top of the sentiment.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  By the Dock, Itty Bitty Greetings
Inks:  Black Memento, Soft Suede, Stampin Blends (Crumb Cake, Early Espresso. Real Red, Garden Green, Balmy Blue)
Papers:  Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Whisper White
Accessories:  Dockside Dies, Nesting Label Die, Classic Label Punch, Dimensionals

Pop and Twist , a birthday on the Golf course

I love watching the expressions on people's faces when this card is opened! It certainly is a card for a special someone.

There are many tutorials on how to make these Pop and twist cards including the one at at splitcoaststampers.

This special fold card was made for a gentleman who loves golf and is celebrating a birthday.  But it could be made for another occasion  such as retirement, anniversary, job promotion etc.

The card base is Basic Black layered with Basic Gray and then the Argyle pattern of the Country Club DSP.  The card is held closed with a belly band, which is kept closed with velcro.  

This band is decorated with another larger Argyle pattern from the same Country Club DSP. The ends are covered with some Basic Gray card stock punched with the Tailored Tag punch upon which is a die cut golf ball.

The art piece o the front is an image cut from the DSP and coloured with water colour pencils. It is matted with basic Black card stock before adding  it to the card front.

Opening the card activates the awesome pop and twist part of the card.

Below are close ups of the pop and twist panels:

And close ups of the inside upper and lower card:

Supplies Used:

Stamp:  Country Club

Inks:  Basic Gray, Black Memento, Watercolour Pencils, Garden Green

Papers:  Basic black, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Country Club DSP, Garden Green

Accessories:  Country Club Dies, Nesting Label Dies, Tailored Tag Punch

Well Dressed with Umbrellas in a Stand & Tutorial

This is the 3rd card of the three masculine birthday cards I made using the Well Dressed stamp set.

A Nesting Label die was die cut and the focal images were adhered to them.

The three umbrellas, stamped in colours I picked from the DSP, were fussy cut and set aside.

One end of a Story Book Label punch cut off  to make the umbrella stamd. To decorate the vase, some DSP was adhered near the top.  The edges of this DSP was trimmed along the edges of the vase then sponged with Night of Navy .  A larger pattern was cut out from another DSP and added to the  middle of the vase.

After colouring the handle of the umbrella with a Soft Suede marker, they were placed in the stand.  Two were adhered directly to the Nesting Label die but the third was added with dimensionals.

The Night of Navy card base was layered with Crushed Curry cardstock.  At the left side is adhered some Country Club  DSP (multicoloured argyle pattern)  The Nesing Label focal point was added  to the card front using dimensionals.

Below the  Nesting Label focal point a sentiment from Itty Bitty Birthday stamp and also adhered to the card front using dimensionals.

There is a free downloadable tutorial here


Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Well Dressing , Itty Birthday Birthdays
Inks:Night of Navy, Garden Green, Daffodil Delight, Real Red
Papers:  Night of Navy, Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Country Club DSP
Accessories:  Nesting Label dies, Story Book Label punch, Dimensionals

Below is a picture of all three cards

The post of the first card can be found here; the second card here.  Both posts have links to tutorials.

First card 

Second Card

Well Dressed Masculine card with Tutorial

I promised myself that during this COVID-19 pandemic, while I was self isolating, I make full use of the SAB stamp sets before the end of March, when SAB is over.


Last evening it was the stamp set "Well Dressed" that I used to make some Masculine birthday cards.
The 3 cards I made are pictured below:

The cards will be posted over the next 3 days.

The first card has a colour scheme of Night of Navy and Whisper White.  It was the first card I made and I was experimenting with the placement of the elements.

It has a Night of Navy card base, layered with Whisper White.  The DSP strip in the center is from the Country Club DSP.  The plaid pattern fits so perfectly with the tie. The picture doesn't show it very well, but the Whisper White layer is matted with Smokey Slate Card Stock and then added to the card base.

The stamparatus was used to stamp the images and I was happy I did as for some reason my Night of Navy was not stamping very well despite the fact I had reinked the ink pad.

The tie was die cut with the Nesting Label die and added to the card front with dimensionals.  I tried centering it on the card, but it just didn't look right, so it was off set to the left with the sentiment
centered to the right.

The hat, watch and shoe were fussy cut and placed as in the picture above- the hat and watch using dimensionals.

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Well Dressed
Ink:  Night of Navy
Papers: Night of Navy, Whisper White, Country Club DSP, Smokey Slate
Accessories: Nesting Label dies, Ornate Frames, Dimensionals, Stamparatus


A free printable PDF tutorial is available here

We're the Best of Friends -The Paper Players # 440 and a new catalogue sample

Do you ever have one of these nights where you wake up at 3 am and can't get  back to sleep? It is now close to 5 am and I've been up since that ungodly hour.  I've had too many of these nights.  However, I try to make the most of the quiet time to get caught up with my blogging.

Yesterday evening I experimented with making a Z-fold card using the Nesting Label dies and the new "Free as a Bird" stamp set with the theme of 'friendship".  This was  for the theme challenge with The Paper Players

A traditional Z-Fold card made with a Balmy Blue base is layered with Whisper White and then 3 different patterns of the Bird Ballad DSP.

The focal piece is a Nesting Label die of watercolor paper, within which a Balmy Blue watercolor wash was created to form a backdrop for the 'friends'.  The 'friends' are birds that I fussy cut directly from the DSP - the branch that one is perched on is die cut in Soft Suede using the Seasonal Layers die.  The leaves and flowers were stamped on a separate piece of Whisper White card stock, using the Free as a Bird stamp set, coloured with Stampin' Blends and then fussy cut.  These were attached to the die cut branch.  The 'friend' looks like he just dropped by as I placed him off the edge of the label die.

The label is adhered to the card front by one edge only, the biflagged sentiment beneath it. A Whisper White label adhered to the inside is positioned in such a manner as to not been seen when card is closed.

Three feathers, also fussy cut from the DSP, were adhered to the upper left of the focal image.  A bow, made using  Linen thread was added at the top of the feather cluster.

This stamp set is available for order on June 3, 2019

Supplies Used:
Stamp:  Free as a Bird
Inks:  Black Memento, Balmy Blue, Stampin' Blends - Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Papers:  Balmy Blue, Whisper White, Bird Ballad DSP, Soft Suede, Watercolor
Accessories:  Nested Label dies, Linen thread, Colorful Seasons die

Let's Celebrate You - SUO Challenges #222 - catalogue sneak peak

This could be an Anniversay card or a birthday card, or a card for any celebratory event. When I saw the new challenge for SUO Challenges -celebrations -  I immediately thought of this new "Stamp and Bloom" stamp set available in the new annual catalogue starting June 2

Because foil reflects  light, it  is notoriously difficult to photograph and this card with foil on it is no exception. Gold foil makes a card look  so elegant.

The card base is  5 by 5 Square Whisper White card , layered first with Gold Foil, and then Whisper White.

The floral images were stamped on a separate piece of Whisper White, and coloured with Stampin' Blends - the flowers in Petal Pink, and Flirty Flamingo; the leaves in Granny Apple Green.  Gold glitter was added to the round greenery and the flower centers. It was die cut with the coordinating Grow and Bloom dies.

The gold embossed sentiment  was die cut with the Nesting Label Die. The same size of Nesting Label die was used to die cut a gold foil.  The ends were trimmed off this gold foil die and matted to each end of the Whisper White label die. Foil was not added to the upper and lower edges as the flowers would be covering this up.

This label was then adhered to the  card front, with the two floral die cuts added above and below it using dimensionals.

The inside of the card is layered in a similar manner and the sentiment gold embossed.

Supplies Used:
Stamp:  Bloom and Grow
Inks:  Black Memento, Versa Mark, Stampin' Blends (Petal Pink, Flirty Flamingo, Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight)
Papers:  Whisper White, Gold Foil
Accessories: Budding Blooms Dies, Gold Dazzling Details (retired), Dimensionals, Gold embossing folder, Nesting Label Dies