Hello ScrapbookPal friends! Vicki Fedor with a fun Halloween card! If you might remember, Hero Arts came out with a Hero Arts – Crackin’ Christmas Collection – Dies – Big Mouth Slider interactive die last holiday season. It’s the “inside parts”, or the guts of the card, that can make something on the front of the card move, like a mouth opening and closing. In that case, there was a companion Nutcracker die. For Halloween, Hero Arts gave us a choice of a Hero Arts – Spooky Smiles Collection – Dies – Big Mouth Cat, a pumpkin, or a vampire. I’m sure they have more up their sleeves as well! This is much easier than it looks, once you get the hang of it. Hero Arts – Spooky Smiles Collection – Stamp & Cut – Bite Nite is a really fun collection of sentiments and matching dies that work with all of Halloween products. The set also includes a downward arrow and the word “Pull” to make the interactive element clear.

Being the animal lover that I am, I chose to use the cat die set. My son has a beautiful black cat. When the sun hits her fur just right, she looks like she sparkles! That’s where I got the idea for adding the Spellbinders – Splatter Effects – Sparkle on black paper for the majority of the cat. Putting the cat together is pretty simple. I cut the ears, eyes, nose, fangs and ribbon collar from white cardstock. and then used Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide Ink Pads and Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Tiny Blending Tools to add color. I used Victorian Velvet with a little Hickory Smoke for the ears, Twisted Citron and Fossilized Amber for the eyes, and Fossilized Amber for the collar/bow. I cut the whiskers out of silver cardstock.

I had to take a pause here and go to the Hero Arts website to watch the video on how to put the Nutcracker together so that I could understand the inner workings of the card. For the Nutcracker, the beard is the piece that is pulled to open the mouth. With the cat, they include a rectangular die in the Big Mouth Cat set to cut a piece to pull down, instead of making a piece to pull that is part of the design. (Oh! That’s what that is for!) It works the same way.

This is the “guts” of my card. I chose an A2 sized dark pink piece of cardstock. This will be what you see inside the mouth with whatever message you choose. On top of that base, layer two of the white frames that come in the Hero Arts – Crackin’ Christmas Collection – Dies – Big Mouth Slider set. Just cut two pieces of white card stock, and stack them together using glue or double sided tape. Glue or tape them to the 4.25 x 5.5 inch base. The black cardstock you see in the photo was cut using another die from the Big Mouth Slider set. The last die in that set is used to cut out a piece that will be attached to the top of the pink/white/black piece (this is my purple piece, colored with Distress Oxide purples.

Once you have this together (pink on bottom, white and black in the middle, purple on top) the cat goes on top of all of this. It might sound complicated, but it was clear for me after watching the Hero Arts video for the Nutcracker instead of trying to guess which piece goes where, and what color it has to be!

The photo above is how I lined things up to decide exactly where to attach my purple pull tab (the rectangle from the cat dies) to the black “chin” piece of the cat (the piece that moves).

I chose to leave my card as is – I did not attach it to another card base. You can of course. I just thought it was complete like this… a sentiment on the top (Happy Halloween), then you pull the tab to get to the inside sentiment. I will just sign the back of it and pop it in the mail!

Thank you for viewing my design. My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Hero Arts – Spooky Smiles Collection – Dies – Big Mouth Cat
Hero Arts – Spooky Smiles Collection – Stamp & Cut – Bite Nite
Hero Arts – Crackin’ Christmas Collection – Dies – Big Mouth Slider
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide Ink Pad – Fossilized Amber, Twisted Citron, Victorian Velvet, Wilted Violet, Dusty Concord, Villainous Potion, Hickory Smoke
Tsukineko – VersaFine Ink Pad – Onyx Black
Spellbinders – Splatter Effects – Sparkle
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Tiny Blending Tool, 2 pack
3L – Scrapbook Adhesives – 3D Foam Squares – White – Variety Pack – Thin
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! Vicki Fedor here with a traditional fall card project. Catherine Pooler has a unique style in my opinion – simple and fun! Not “cute-sy” fun, but real clean fun! I can relate to her designs. Like, if I could draw (which I can’t), I think I would draw similar to her style. It feels easy for me to create with her products. Her new Catherine Pooler Designs – Clear Stamps – Gourd-ness Gracious and Gourd-ness Gracious Dies have a clean and simple design, and offer plenty of options. I can see myself using these pumpkins and leaves paired with other designers’ products throughout the season, because I feel they will go with lots of different styles. This set has a pumpkin, 2 different sized gourds, 3 leaves, 3 sentiments, and a small acorn and mushroom to use as fillers. Mix and match for all of your fall celebration cards.

For my background, I thought of leaves blowing around the yard, and the acorns that I would step on in the driveway. I used Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide Ink Pads in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo for the leaves and acorns. I almost always prefer to use a stamp positioning tool, but for this I just used an acrylic block and hoped for the best! I thought I might use an embossing folder on the background, but I decided the Sizzix – Catherine Pooler – 3-D Textured Impressions Embossing Folder – Posh Patterns was going to be perfect to add some patterns and texture to my focal point, which would be a mix of pumpkins and gourds.

Originally I used more Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide Ink Pads for the pumpkins and gourds (photo above), but I decided these pieces should be a little more crisp, and that the Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pads would be a better choice (photo below). After some playing around with colors, I ended up using Dried Marigold, Carved Pumpkin, Scattered Straw, and Speckled Egg. I was surprised that the Dried Marigold and Scattered Straw ended up looking very similar in these photos, but it is more noticeable in person. I added some lowlighting with Tea Dye ink around the edges of the background, and decided to do the same with the pumpkins and gourds, after I had given them texture in the Catherine Pooler Posh Patterns embossing folder. Of course then I thought that maybe I should have added other color inks to the solid stamps from the get-go, because they are big enough to do it that way too. Next time, I’m happy with how this card came together.

To tie my in my focal point, I anchored it with a vellum circle cut with another favorite of mine, the Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Double Stitched Circle. I picked the “fall breeze & autumn leaves” sentiment, stamped with Vintage Photo, and embossed with Gina K. Designs – Embossing Powder – Detail Clear. To make this work, I first stamp with the Distress Ink Pad to get the crisp detail, and then stamp over it with the Distress Oxide in the same color. The Oxide gives the stamping enough “stickiness” to hold the embossing powder for me.

To finish the card, I added Lawn Fawn – Hemp Twine – Orange on the left of the card, and Spellbinders – Card Shoppe Essentials – Color Essentials Sequins – Aura Opalescent. I chose the Aura Opalescent colored sequins because in the right light, it reflects blue and incorporates the blue pumpkin into the design.

Thank you for viewing my design. My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Catherine Pooler Designs – Clear Stamps – Gourd-ness Gracious
Catherine Pooler Designs – Dies – Gourd-ness Gracious
Sizzix – Catherine Pooler – 3-D Textured Impressions Embossing Folder – Posh Patterns
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Double Stitched Circle
Lawn Fawn – Hemp Twine – Orange
Spellbinders – Card Shoppe Essentials – Color Essentials Sequins – Aura Opalescent
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Oxide Ink Pad – Antique Linen, Vintage Photo
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Dried Marigold, Carved Pumpkin, Scattered Straw, Speckled Egg, Tea Dye
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Tiny Blending Tool, 2 pack
Gina K. Designs – Embossing Powder – Detail Clear
3L – Scrapbook Adhesives – 3D Foam Squares – White – Variety Pack – Thin
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! How many of you also had to Google “Is Summerween a thing?”? I guess I’m old. I don’t watch a lot of television, and I don’t do much mall shopping anymore, so I was completely unaware! So this was a good exercise for me! First I had to find out what Summerween was – drag myself into the present century!! I recently moved to Florida (that’s how old I am – Florida Old!), and I’m obsessed with Flamingos and all of the other new-to-me flora and fauna.

Hero Arts came out with two big sets of Summerween stamps and dies, and a fun floral stencil set that coordinates with them. I chose to work with Hero Arts – Summerween Collection – Stamp & Cut – Ghoul Summer and Hero Arts – Summerween Collection – Stamp & Cut – Beach Boos. I liked the floral stencils, but for my card, I wanted more of a water – wave theme. Poking around on the ScrapbookPal.com website, I found Catherine Pooler Designs – Cling Stamps – Blissful Bubbles Background. Just what I wanted! Bubbles – waves – motion!

This background is straightforward, but I wanted to include a photo to show you how great this background stamp is. I first tried using different blue inks on the stamp at the same time, but in the end I thought the different colors would end up too busy for this card. I settled on one color, Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Tumbled Glass. While I was thinking about it, I trimmed down the bubble panel with Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles, inked another layer of white A2 cardstock with the same ink, and cut out a larger rectangle to have a framed background.

For the main scene on my card, I knew I wanted to use the flamingos, a palm tree, and some of the jack o’lanterns that are made out of watermelon instead of pumpkins. I stamped a bunch of images with Tsukineko – Memento Full Size Dye Inkpad – Tuxedo Black, let it dry for a while, and then got out my Copic Sketch markers. I tried to be artistic with the Copic markers, but I just need to let that go! Try as I might, I’m a very basic Copic colorer! The markers I used are listed below.

Sometimes I have a thought that works in my mind, but not on paper, or acetate in this case. The sentiment is “Celebrate your inner flamin-ghoul”. My idea was to stamp the ghouls/ghosts on acetate, and place them over the flamingo ghouls. It didn’t work, at least it didn’t work how I wanted it to. So my acetate ghost is holding up the sentiment. I’d love to see if you used one of the ghosts in the Beach Boos set, especially if you stamped it on acetate or vellum, or another type of specialty paper.

This was a fun card to make, and now I want to have a Summerween party with carved watermelons and Flamin-ghouls! Thank you for viewing my design. My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Hero Arts – Summerween Collection – Stamp & Cut – Ghoul Summer
Hero Arts – Summerween Collection – Stamp & Cut – Beach Boos
Catherine Pooler Designs – Cling Stamps – Blissful Bubbles Background
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles
Tsukineko – Memento Full Size Dye Inkpad – Tuxedo Black
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Ink Pad – Tumbled Glass
Copic Sketch Markers RV00, RV55, Y11, YG13, G14, G28, E33, E34
3L – Scrapbook Adhesives – 3D Foam Squares – White – Variety Pack – Thin
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! Garden… nature… poetry… serenity! Spellbinders captured all of it in their new Serenity Garden Collection, now available at ScrapbookPal. I was able to choose my favorites to work with on this project. I think I chose everything! I absolutely love the mounds of primrose this time of year, so I first chose the Spellbinders – Serenity Garden Collection – Dies – Primrose. A little flower die set at a little price point! The magic comes when you make a bunch of them, and cluster them together on your card. If I were to suggest one other must-have from this collection, it’s the Spellbinders – Serenity Garden Collection – 3D Embossing Folder – Ode to a Poet. Try any embossing folder technique to bring out the design, add a quote or a sentiment from Spellbinders – The Poet’s Garden Collection – Press Plate & Dies – The Poet’s Garden Sentiments, and you’re done! Totally optional, but you’ll be happy you got the Spellbinders – Serenity Garden Collection – Dies – Tassel Flower and Ladybugs, if not just for the ladybug that can be added to any floral card!

I started with this gorgeous embossing folder. My first idea was to use white paper and to ink the inside of the folder before I ran it through my BigShot. It came out fine, but I decided it was too… bold and busy… for this project. I wanted something softer and simpler, while still accentuating the details of this beauty. Next I embossed a piece of “nectar” colored paper and ran a Gina K. Designs – Pigment Ink Pad – White very lightly over the embossed high points. This was much more of what I was looking for. This is also when I decided to make a 5×7 card. The folder is so nicely composed, I wanted to use as much as possible on the card.

I did stop at this point to watch the videos on the Spellbinders Paper Arts website made by the designer, Susan Tierney-Cockburn. Fascinatingly detailed! I have patience with details, but… not that much! I used a couple ideas and skipped a couple steps so I wouldn’t drive myself crazy! I wanted a card that I would be able to share and reproduce. Susan’s work is fine art compared to what I did!

I selected a Copic Sketch marker, Mauve Shadow (BV00) for my petals. For the centers I used Cadmium Yellow (Y15). The petals are so small, I kept the coloring simple. After I assembled the flowers, I went in with a little Chrome Orange (YR04) because I felt the flowers were missing something.

The leaves were colored with Copic Sketch Pale Moss (YG61) all over, then I added some lowlights with Pea Green (YG63). For the tiny center, I used some scrap green paper. As Susan said in her video, that isn’t quite correct for the centers of Primrose, but I decided not to overthink, and followed her directions here with rolling up the teeny diecut and gluing it closed.

I used a shaping tool on the petals and leaves. I did not see a shaping tool set currently available on the ScrapbookPal website, but I know they have had different brands available in the past. If you don’t have a shaping tool, you can use the rounded end of a marker or pen, or just your fingers. or skip this step. If you’re going to be sending this card through the mail, it will get squished anyways. This will be a hand-delivered card for me.

As I mentioned above, I bought the Tassel Flower and Ladybugs die set just to get the Ladybug, and added it here. It was made with a scrap of red paper, Copic Sketch Black 100, and a dot of Ranger Ink – Glossy Accents.

To frame my design, I used a 5×7 piece of black cardstock and a smaller piece of white cardstock. The sentiment is from the Spellbinders – The Poet’s Garden Collection – Press Plate & Dies – The Poet’s Garden Sentiments. This plate can be used with either the BetterPress system and ink (which I did), or the Spellbinders Glimmer Foil system. There are 3 quotes, as well as a Thank You and “Happy Gotcha Day”, something I haven’t seen anywhere else.

The Ladybug, sentiment, and flowers were attached to the card with 3L – Scrapbook Adhesives – 3D Foam Squares – White – Variety Pack – Thin. I used Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle for the leaves, background, and frames.

Thank you for viewing my design. My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Spellbinders – Serenity Garden Collection – Dies – Primrose
Spellbinders – Serenity Garden Collection – 3D Embossing Folder – Ode to a Poet
Spellbinders – The Poet’s Garden Collection – Press Plate & Dies – The Poet’s Garden Sentiments
Spellbinders – Serenity Garden Collection – Dies – Tassel Flower and Ladybugs,
Tsukineko – VersaFine Ink Pad – Onyx Black
Gina K. Designs – Pigment Ink Pad – White
Copic Sketch Markers BV00, Y15, YR04, YG61, YG63
3L – Scrapbook Adhesives – 3D Foam Squares – White – Variety Pack – Thin
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle
Ranger Ink – Glossy Accents, 0.5 oz.

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! Something magical happened when I opened up the shipping envelope and pulled out this Spellbinders – Clear Stamps & Dies – Stars & Stripes set. For a moment – a rather long moment actually – I stopped thinking about all the negative politics and news in the national headlines. I went back to myself as a young girl in pig tails (braids) who was excited about the upcoming holiday – July 4th! A time to be thankful and joyous for the great nation that we are so blessed to live within. We would be getting ready to celebrate, watch the fireworks, visit with friends, and eat hotdogs and strawberry shortcake. Mom would most likely have gotten us new T-shirts with flags on them, and we would have been warned not to wear them early. I was indeed feeling proud to be an American. It was a nice reminder.

My initial creative block disappeared, and I decided to make a shaker card. I love the movement and flow in this design, and I wanted to add to that feeling. I also thought I wanted to make a more traditional card – one that a veteran like my father-in-law might be honored to receive. It would have to have a gold frame!

It took me a couple times using scrap paper to get the dies close enough to keep the form of the flag. I kept trying until I felt it looked okay. The dies ended up having to be very close together, but I think it works. Just be very careful to tape the pieces down, and don’t let them overlap each other. Otherwise, you will definitely damage the dies, and might damage your machine!

I planned to put a piece of red paper behind the cutouts, for the red stripes. I diecut the stars from a piece of blue paper and realized the little stars left behind would be perfect for the shaker bits! It did, however, require lots more of those little stars than I first imagined. I used the star die cut about 20 times, cutting a couple different colors of red, some blue, and a bunch of clear stars made from extra cellophane packaging. Later, I would also cut some gold stars to use around my sentiment. I made a thin shaker window by repurposing some more cello packaging.

I love this set because it gives you not only the dies, but stamps as well, with three different sentiments. I picked the Thank You for your service stamp, inked it with Tsukineko – VersaMark Watermark – Stamp Pad, sprinkled on WOW! – Embossing Powder – Super Fine – Metallic Gold Rich, and heat set it to melt.

Lastly, I cut a gold frame using satin gold paper from my stash and Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles. I used Altenew – Instant Dimension Foam Tape – 1/16″ x 1/4″ between my shaker window and the red background, and my favorite Bearly Arts glue to attach the frame and some gold stars that I die cut to accentuate the sentiment.

I hope you make yourself a flag card and have a Star Spangled July 4th! Thank you for visiting my blog – I appreciate you! My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Spellbinders – Clear Stamps & Dies – Stars & Stripes
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles
Tsukineko – VersaMark Watermark – Stamp Pad
WOW! – Embossing Powder – Super Fine – Metallic Gold Rich
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle
Altenew – Instant Dimension Foam Tape – 1/16″ x 1/4″

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! I have surely fallen into a pattern of luck! Most of my assignments this year on the Design Team are for Pinkfresh Studio, one of my favorite companies. Of course I love all of their floral designs. I find I have to stretch myself for the non-florals, like this darling set, appropriately called Darling District, including Pinkfesh Studio – Press Plates – Darling District, Pinkfresh Studio – Stencils – Darling District, Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Darling District. There is also a stamp set available, and I will share my faux pas in regards to the stamps! I love the crisp results I get from using press plates and my Spellbinders – BetterPress Letterpress System. I have assumed that the acrylic stamp sets and the press plates in any specific product line are interchangeable. They are… mostly. You can stamp the image, and it will work with the coordinating dies and stencils, OR, you can either “stamp” or foil the image with the press plate, and it matches up the same. However, and probably due to production factors, there MAY be a stamp that is not included in the press plate set, like in this case. If you look at the stamp set, you will see little stamps to use on the awnings of the buildings that say “le petit cafe” and “boutique”. Those words are not included in the press plate set. Not a big deal, unless you but the press plate set expecting them to come with! If you have to choose one or the other, I recommend the stamp set for this design, unless you’re able to get the whole bundle with both.

To fix my oversight, I decided to use Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Texture Paste – Sparkle – 3 oz. on my awnings after I colored them with the stencils. And then I ordered the stamp set!

Pinkfresh Studios have a look to their designs that I tried to follow here. In my mind, I see lots of beautiful, tasteful pastel palettes, a touch of sparkle, loads of details, and lots of white. Sometimes when I design, I try to do something different, to show you another style to use the products perhaps. When I get a new assignment, I try very hard to not look at what has already been done, so I feel I am coming up with unique ideas for you. Here I cut down one of the buildings, and I decorated the inside of the card as well as the front, using a large window to peak in. Also using the sparkle texture paste was something that I thought would be different.

It was a pretty simple card to put together once I started. I used the Pinkfesh Studio – Press Plates – Darling District with silver hot foil in my Glimmer foiling machine. I foiled the buildings and most of the sentiments at once, so I would be able to choose one of the sentiments later. Sometimes if I’m not making a card for a specific person or occasion, I’ll pick the sentiments that physically fits the best on the card. Next, I used the Pinkfresh Studio – Stencils – Darling District to color the image. There was one stencil I skipped – I think it was the 4th one, and just added more details to the windows I believe. I used Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina, and Antique Linen. After I was done adding color, I went back to the stencil with the awnings to add the sparkle texture paste, and let that dry before using the dies to cut out my pieces.

I used the second largest inside frame in the Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Dotted Fancy Frames to cut a large window in the front of a white A2 side fold card. I then used the largest frame to cut out a window in a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 piece of light teal cardstock. I wanted the white card to layer underneath the teal piece. It also gave me a place to attach my cafe. I also cut a white frame, and used my Gina K. Designs – Embossing Folder – Swiss Dot to add texture to that layer.

Before gluing anything, I placed my taller building inside, and positioned it where it could be seen behind the cafe, which I would then attach to just the right side of my window with my favorite liquid glue. I wanted to add a little more detail and color inside the card, so I applied Distress Spun Sugar using a blending brush and a brick layering stencil.

I finished my card with foam squares to layer the front, and Aura Opalescent sequins from Spellbinders.

I hope you try some of these great new designs from Pinkfresh Studios! Thank you for visiting my blog – I appreciate you! My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Pinkfesh Studio – Press Plates – Darling District
Pinkfresh Studio – Stencils – Darling District
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Darling District
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Dotted Fancy Frames
Gina K. Designs – Embossing Folder – Swiss Dot
Stampers Anonymous – Tim Holtz Layered Stencil – Bricked
Spellbinders – BetterPress Letterpress System
Spellbinders – Glimmer Hot Foil – Silver
Spellbinders – Card Shoppe Essentials – Color Essentials Sequins – Aura Opalescent
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Spun Sugar, Kitsch Flamingo, Salvaged Patina, Antique Linen
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Texture Paste – Sparkle – 3 oz.
Tsukineko – Memento Full Size Dye Inkpad – Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders Mini Blending Brush Set
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Variety Pack
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! I know it’s a little early to start thinking of summer, but I can’t help it with the flowers and fruit in this yummy collection from Pinkfresh Studios! The collection is called Freshly Picked, and the products include Pinkfresh Studio – Press Plates – Freshly Picked, Pinkfresh Studio – Stencils – Freshly Picked, Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Freshly Picked, and a stamp set (which includes one more sentiment than the press plates). I decided to purchase the press plate instead of the clear stamp set. A press plate will allow you to get a crisp outline of the images using ink, or you can switch it up and use it with foil and your favorite foiling system (Spellbinders – Glimmer Hot Foil System for example). You can also use a press plate and your die cut machine to do dry embossing!

I wanted to show you the beautiful details in this set. Initially I had thought I might watercolor the design, so that’s why I used water color paper with the press plate. As I moved along, I changed my mind, and decided to use the matching stencils that I had purchased. What I noticed using the stencils and ink on the watercolor paper was that the paper sucked up all the ink, and the ink dried much lighter than I wanted it. That’s okay though, because I would eventually use all of the pieces. Back to my Spellbinders – BetterPress Letterpress System to create more images on my favorite white cardstock (like you might use for Copic coloring).

Just look at the details in these prints and stencils!!! That tiny little strawberry flower has 3 parts to it, and it is literally the size of a pencil eraser! It’s incredible the amount of detail these companies are able to achieve! That little white gel pen highlight on the strawberries? That was a stencil cutout on the last stencil. I could have used ink instead, but I wanted to try the pen. The absolute best part is that there is ONE press plate (or stamp) that creates all of the flower and fruit images, and ONE die that cuts them all out, all at the same time!! There is practically no way to mess up and waste time, effort, and paper! Just line up one element, and the others follow.

Now, what to do with all these lovely pieces? Let’s make a background. I’m thinking picnic. I recently picked up the Altenew – Stencils – Watercolor Plaid Builder. I liked how it looks haphazard, but is really a set of two stencils that you can mix and match to make lines, or overlap to make plaid designs. Stencils like this that you can use in multiple ways feel like such a bargain to me!

I decided to make a window on the front of my card, open to the inside of the card, and planned to decorate it with the flowers and fruit. I cut an oval in my card front, and used Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles to cut out my plaid background so that I could add a colored border frame around it. For that, I just used direct-to-paper inking on another A2 sized piece of white cardstock.

As I said before, I made some extra flowers and fruit because I accidently started with watercolor paper. Plus, it’s really so easy using the stencils and dies that do all the pieces at once! Once I got the first card done, I “freshly picked” two more background colors out of the Ranger – Tim Holtz – Distress inks that I had selected for my flowers and fruit.

I assembled the card using Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Variety Pack, Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack, and Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue to attach everything to my A2 white cardbase. I added some no-hole sequins from Spellbinders. I think you can see best with the red strawberry themed card that when you open the card up, the sentiment and strawberry will be on the inside of the card.

I started with the yellow card, and ended up liking the red strawberry card the best! But the three cards hardly took any more time than making the first one. Here’s a reminder that if something works well, make one in every color! Kind of like shoe shopping, am I right? Thank you for visiting my blog. My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Pinkfresh Studio – Press Plates – Freshly Picked
Pinkfresh Studio – Stencils – Freshly Picked
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Freshly Picked
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Essentials: Double Stitched Rectangles
Spellbinders – BetterPress Letterpress System
Altenew – Stencils – Watercolor Plaid Builder
Spellbinders – Woodland Tales Collection – Sequins – Satin Gold
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Saltwater Taffy, Abandoned Coral, Lumberjack Plaid, Scattered Straw, Dried Marigold, Cracked Pistachio, Lucky Clover, Chipped Sapphire
Tsukineko – Memento Full Size Dye Inkpad – Tuxedo Black
Spellbinders Mini Blending Brush Set
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Variety Pack
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! I had the opportunity to play with the new Checkmate Collection from Spellbinders. I encourage you to go to the Spellbinders website to see how they put the chess and checkers pieces together. It wasn’t intuitively obvious for me! When I am creating a new card design, I try hard not to look at the samples, because I don’t want it to influence my creative process. However, I might have spent days trying to get these Spellbinders – Checkmate Collection – Dies – Chess & Checkers pieces together without looking at the website for help!

I really like the fact that you can get the matching stencils for the Harlequin embossing folder. There are five stencils in the set, so you can have a standard two=color checkerboard, or make each stencils a different color, and have four (or more) colors. This makes it incredibly easy to change it up however you want. The fifth stencil is the shadow for each of the chess pieces in the die set. I thought that was unique too, as I don’t think I have any other dies that came with a matching shadow. I really like the concept and hope they come out with more.

I went old school with this card and pulled out my Ranger Ink mini blending tools to get some ink down quickly. It works great with stencils like this (no intricate cutouts). I used Gathered Twigs and Old Paper Distress Oxide inks for a neutral theme. I then splattered the background with Gathered Twigs. I decided where I wanted my chess pieces on the card and then added the King and Queen shadows with Hickory Smoke Distress Ink.

Looking at the Spellbinders – Checkmate Collection – Clear Stamps & Dies – Well Played Sentiments, I picked “another year? check.” and “checkmate!”. I got stuck on the idea that I wanted a big checkmark, but I couldn’t find one in my stamp or die stash, so I decided to make one. I sketch one on a piece of scrap paper, and then I used that as a template to cut one out of black paper. My husband would have said I’m breaking the rules, and I’m not a rule follower, but I did it anyways, and I love how it came out!

I used my favorite glue and foam squares to bring this A2 sized side fold card together. Thank you for checking out my card! My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Spellbinders – Checkmate Collection – Dies – Chess & Checkers
Spellbinders – Checkmate Collection – Clear Stamps & Dies – Well Played Sentiments
Spellbinders – Checkmate Collection – Stencils – Layered Harlequin
Spellbinders – Checkmate Collection – 3D Embossing Folder – Harlequin
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Hickory Smoke
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad – Hickory Smoke, Gathered Twigs, Old Paper
Ranger Ink – Mini Ink Blending Tool
Tsukineko – VersaFine Ink Pad – Onyx Black
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! Today I have a pretty birthday card (for someone special – me!) made with the new Altenew – Build-A-Garden: Garland Grace and Altenew – Dies – Build-A-Garden: Garland Grace Add-On. I have proven time and again not to be trusted with a pair of scissors, so I always get the extra add-on die set if available. I am not a fan of fussy cutting! But if you are, you could totally skip that and just get the Garden Grace Build-A-Garden bundle without the die add-on. The bundle includes the stamp set, stencils, and the best part: another mini blending brush for your collection! I love these brushes!

When I got this set, I had the idea to color this flower arrangement in a gradual blend of pinks, purples, and blues. This was not an original idea of course… I borrowed it from my lovely Virginia Bluebells that have just finished flowering. The ones on my property start off as pink, transition to a beautiful light purple, and finally open up as a periwinkle blue. They are absolutely gorgeous, and worth a trip along the Shenandoah River next Spring!

I stamped the floral arrangement on white cardstock with VersaMark ink, and then added WOW! – Embossing Powder – Super Fine – Metallic Silver, and melted it with a heat gun. I followed the stencil coloring for the bigger flower, and then used multiple colors on the smaller flowers, from pinks to Shaded Lilac, and then Tumbled Glass. I thought it came out so pretty! I also thought the bigger flower could use a bit more shading, so I went back to the first stencil, and added shading around the edges with Worn Lipstick and Shaded Lilac inks, using my Altenew – Mini Blending Brush.

I used the Altenew Garland Grace Add-On Dies to cut out the flower arrangement. This is a gorgeous larger design, and would easily fill a 5×7 card, but I decided to stick with a standard 4.25 by 5.5 inch card. That meant I’d have to cut something off somewhere. I loved how the smaller flowers came out, so I cut some of the larger flower off.

Once I had the positioning figured out, I added Dusty Concord Oxide ink to the bottom of the card, on the diagonal. It’s so easy to get a rich color with the Distress Oxides without much effort. I also decided to layer a frame behind the front of the card using the darker Villainous Potion.

I chose the “happy birthday” sentiment from the stamp set, stamped again in the VersaMark ink onto vellum, and added silver embossing powder. The vellum alone wasn’t thick enough, so I ended up layering on top of a piece of white cardstock for stability.

I put together my card, but it didn’t feel quite done. I added Spellbinders – Splatter Effects – Sparkle, and that helped a bit. I used Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack to attach the floral piece and sentiment to the card. It was nice, but I still felt something was missing. Some sequins? Butterflies? Hearts? I know! A bee! And I know the prefect bee – the Altenew – Dies – Bubbly Bumble Bee! But a regular yellow and black bumble bee detracted too much from the flowers. Then I made a vellum bee, but he was a bit too inconspicuous. I made another bee with vellum wings, a sparkle paper white body, and silver stripes and legs. I thought that was much better, and added the interest and dimension that I felt completed this card.

I hope you try this gorgeous Garland Grace set from Altenew! Thank you for visiting my blog – I appreciate you! My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Altenew – Build-A-Garden: Garland Grace
Altenew – Dies – Build-A-Garden: Garland Grace Add-On
Altenew – Dies – Bubbly Bumble Bee
Altenew – Mini Blending Brush
Spellbinders – Splatter Effects – Sparkle
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Spun Sugar, Twisted Citron, Cracked Pistachio, Tumbled Glass, Shaded Lilac
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad – Worn Lipstick, Dusty Concord, Villainous Potion
Tsukineko – VersaMark Watermark – Stamp Pad
WOW! – Embossing Powder – Super Fine – Metallic Silver
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack

Hello ScrapbookPal friends! There was a saying when I grew up – “Reading is Fun*damental!” So is this set which includes Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Floral Tale and Pinkfreah Studio – Stencils – Floral Tale! Just think of all the ways you can use it – books are everywhere and encompass all things, and of course can be very fun. They’re prevalent in schools and places of religion, and used for leisure activities. They can be used to represent comfort or knowledge, stories of our lives, stories of adventure, bedtime stories, or songs like Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page”. So many things! I plan to be using this die set over and over. To start, I wanted to make a card that had the look and feel of old… not super old, but maybe a card my mother would have saved. I wanted a soft, muted palette and intricate details. Pearls for sure.

I selected colors from the Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Inks. Old Paper, of course, then soft pinks and yellows. I chose my favorite good quality smooth white cardstock. The stencils made it so easy. One thing I had to get used to was that you don’t stamp anything first. There is no outline stamp to line up the stencils. You just begin coloring with the first stencil. You can see that there is a triangle at the top of the book, and two more in the middle of the stencils. These are the keys that you line up the other stencils with, and eventually the die. I used Old Paper, Aged Mahogany, and Lisa Horton Crafts Cloud 9 Metallic Solid Gold for the book. I thought of those old books that had gold on the edges of the pages. For the flowers, I added Tattered Rose and Worn Lipstick, along with the Aged Mahogany. All three of these pinks are available in Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Mini Oxide Ink Pads – Kit 13. I finished the flowers and leaves with Squeezed Lemonade, Shabby Shutters, and Peeled Paint. A very smart and crafty woman once suggested to make more pieces than you think you need – “It’s only paper”. So I made another set of flowers with yellows, including Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, and Dried Marigold. I then had plenty of pieces to choose from while arranging my final layout.

Thinking about the background, I used a piece of water color paper and the “ink smooshing” technique to create an old time none-the-worse-for-wear background. I embellished it with the lovely cover plate die, Pinkfresh Studios – Dies – Petal Trellis Coverplate. I wanted to bring out the gold edges on the book, so I layered this background over a gold piece of cardstock. I used the same gold cardstock to cut an oval frame from Spellbinders – Stylish Ovals Collection – Dies – Essential Stylish Ovals to use as an anchoring point for my book.

I applied Glossy Accents to the ribbon bookmark. It added shine and dimension, and a touch of sophistication. It’s all in the tiny details!

I chose a sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio – Clear Stamps – Heartfelt Chapters, stamped with Versamark Ink, embossed in gold, and then used the coordinating Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Heartfelt Chapters.

I assembled the card using Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Variety Pack, Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack, and Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue to attach everything to my A2 white cardbase. A few pearls from Honey Bee Stamps – Pearl Stickers – Merry Moments were the perfect final addition.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I can’t wait to see how these sets are used by you! My supplies are listed below, and available at ScrapbookPal.com!

Products used in this project, available at ScrapbookPal.com:
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Floral Tale
Pinkfresh Studio – Stencils – Floral Tale
Pinkfresh Studio – Clear Stamps – Heartfelt Chapters
Pinkfresh Studio – Dies – Heartfelt Chapters
Pinkfresh Studios – Dies – Petal Trellis Coverplate
Spellbinders – Stylish Ovals Collection – Dies – Essential Stylish Ovals
Ranger Ink – Tim Holtz – Distress Mini Oxide Ink Pads – Kit 13 (Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Aged Mahogany, Barn Door)
Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad – Squeezed Lemonade, Fossilized Amber, Dried Marigold, Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint, Old Paper
Lisa Horton Crafts – Cloud 9 Metallic Ink Pad – Limited Edition 3 Pack – Silver, Gold, Copper
Tsukineko – Versamark Watermark – Stamp Pad
Spellbinders Mini Blending Brush Set
Altenew – Micro Blending Brush Set
Ranger Ink – Mini Ink Blending Tool
WOW! – Embossing Powder – Super Fine – Metallic Gold Rich
Ranger Ink – Glossy Accents, 0.5 oz.
Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue – The Bundle (with precision tip)
Scrapbook Adhesives Foam Squares Variety Pack
Scrapbook Adhesives Thin Foam Squares Variety Pack
Honey Bee Stamps – Pearl Stickers – Merry Moments