Happy Birthday - hello spring

With our move this winter to another city and a new yard, I have been enjoying my daily walks with my husband. There is a small private school down the street with a great track to mark our daily miles but the neighborhood with narrow streets and large trees intrigues me more. We're amazed to see huge magnolia and cherry trees covering entire front yards, camellias taller than cottage roofs, and gigantic old growth firs with their rough trunks and sweeping branches. 

This has been a beautiful, yet strange spring with our quarantine. Like many bloggers I come and go with energy to create something but my neighborhood has helped immensely.  The Card Concept's latest challenge with flowers in an array of rainbow shades in a vase with text and a bird, prompted me to create a rainbow colored wreath of leaves with a sparkly birdie singing "happy birthday" to the reader. Luckily, the PTI Songbirds set had all I needed for my birthday card. I would define the card as clean and layered. 

Thanks for the visit. 

Here are a few scenes from the neighborhood.

Happy Birthday - Dots & Stripes

I recently purchased my first Waffle Flower stamp and die sets after seeing Cathy Zielske and Laura Bassens' blog posts for Waffle Flowers' Year 6 Birthday blog hop. I have a few geometric stamps but the Big Dot stamp & die set and Color Combo dies with all the triangles and rectangles one could ever want grabbed my attention. I've only begun to play with them and have already made three simple cards.  Included with the order was a gift of JJ Bolton's new rainbow paper pad which each of my cards used as a backdrop. Some of the dots created will be used in the future when I have time to case one of Laura Bassen's geometric treasures. All three qualify for two challenges: AAA Birthday Card Challenge #12 "Dots and/or Stripes" and Inspired by...a rainbow of color where obviously the rainbow hues were my inspiration.

Card #1

 Waffle Flower Big Dot stamp & die; Martha Stewart punch; JJ Bolton pattern paper

 Card #2

 Waffle Flower Big Dot stamp, A2 Rectangle die, Spellbinders star die; JJ Bolton paper

Card #3

 Waffle Flower Big Dot stamp & die; Cn9th Simple Serif Alphabet (heart); JJ Bolton paper

Easter chicks and bunny

Last week I made a few cards with lilies and crosses for Easter but today my favorite (and only) bunny set came out of its envelope for some fun cards to send to shut-ins (looks like most of us) and maybe the grandsons.  No more words. Here they are.

3 notecards with a chick and eggs

PTI Bunny Basket stamps/dies on Hallmark notecards

Next two:

PTI Bunny Basket, PTI Big Egg die, SS Stitched Rectangles, The Greetery Nordic Frames The critters are die cut from SS woodgrain card stock. 

Linking to: Tic Tac Toe Challenge, left row down: pastels, die cuts and colored card base

SS Wonky Rectangles, PTI Bunny Basket, PTI Spring Woods

The white woodgrain chick is mounted with foam tape.

Linking to: Time Out Challenges

Flowers and Birthdays

Happy 6th Birthday to TIME OUT Challenges!

The 157th challenge adds an extra twist of using die cuts or fussy cutting.

The birthday cards below meet both categories plus all three cards use the 

PTI Simple Stems stamps and dies as their focal point. I haven't used this set 

often and found their petite size sweet and charming.

Card #1 PTI Products:

Feature Frame die

Simple Stems stamps/dies

Vogue Vases stamps-fussy cut

Infinity Frames Sentiments

Card #2:

PTI Simple Stems stamps/dies

PTI Vogue Vases stamp-fussy cut

SSS Wonky Rectangles

Linking to Seize the Birthday #185

Card #3:
PTI Simple Stems stamps/dies
PTI Infinity Frames Sentiments
Hero Arts Cling Looped Flower Pattern
SSS Wonky Rectangles

Linking to The Flower Challenge #42

Linking all three cards to TO Challenge: #157

Easter Wishes

While I'm still at the computer I want to share my second set of lilies from The Greetery. This time I colored them in warm shades of yellow and orange. The kraft background was cut from the largest Greetery Nordic Frames glued directly to an ivory card front. The middle NF was cut from rust colored pattern paper and layered underneath with fun foam. Palm branches from Caring Cross and a sprig from PinkFresh Studio's Dainty Blossoms cradle the two lily blooms. A PTI Spring Woods sentiment was embossed on a dark brown Greetery Sentiment Suite flag and foam mounted.

Adding this card to The Flower Challenge #42

He is Risen

I've been playing around with the new BotaniCuts Lily set from The Greetery which consists of 15 dies featuring two different lilies, extra petals and leaves. Betsy Veldman shares how to color using various mediums on The Greetery blog site. I die cut two lilies and petals from a medium red card stock, ink blended Distress Oxide inks on the petals, and finished with Prismacolor pencil accents. The yellow centers were cut from white paper and colored with Copic markers. Each lily was laid over a white embossed cluster of Altenew's Leaf Canopy vellum leaves. BotaniCuts Lily leaves were also added in gray with a black embossed sentiment from The Greetery's Caring Cross set. An accent of dry embossed lines was added in the lower right corner of the soft gray card front.

I'm adding this to The Flower Challenge #42.

Birthday Wishes

On one of the many sales last month I picked up a stamp and die set from PinkFresh Studio that had been on my wishlist for a long time. The variety of leaves and plants in the two large stamps were fun to water color with my Altenew 36 pan set. The stamps were gold embossed first which helped me control the flow of color as my skills are minimal. The sentiment was stamped in stages using my Misti to create the ombre effect. The card was sent to an older friend who was our family doctor and delivered our second son 40 years ago this April. 

Card Supplies: PFS Lush Greenery stamps/die

PTI Penned Elegance II sentiment

SSS Stitched Rectangles

Linking to the challenges at:

Inspired by...seeing Green and Addicted to CAS: Symmetry.