Hello Hollyhocks

 Aloha, 

Two kits arrived from SU today. They've recently had a sale. Since my mojo has hit a pot hole, it feels really good to kick out all 9 cards in the Hollyhocks kit. Don't you love how bright and cheerful the flowers are? I miss growing hollyhocks. 

The cards are simple, pretty and already assigned to recipients. I'll just decorate the insides a bit to finish them. 

The bling, double sided tape, dimensional adhesive foam, the die cuts, 9 card bases and 9 matching envelopes are all included in the kit.

 

Thank you for visiting! 

Purple Bellflowers

 Hi, friends,

I'm still learning how to piece together layered flowers. Boy, these can be tricky. I like that Altenew puts these little keys and arrows in each petal so we know better how to line each one on top of each other. But I still find it difficult, especially if my hands start shaking.

Altenew is having a challenge this month using the colors Purple, Orange and Olive. Here is a LINK to see the samples as well as the entries. I love deep purple and periwinkle (heh heh heh, look at my blog name) but combing it with orange is a hard one so I kept mine more of a golden yellow orange. I hope lots of my old cardmaking buddies are still actively making cards. Take very good care and thank you for stopping by! 

Card Ingredients:

Altenew Craft a Flower Bellflower Die Set

Altenew Bougainvillea Outline Stamp Set & Dies (sentiment)

Altenew Foam Tape

Altenew and Gina K. Designs dye inks

Altenew Tape Runner (my all-time new favoritist ever tape runner - never gets stuck & rolls like butter)

Versafine Black Onyx with Simon Says Stamp clear embossing powder for sentiment

Gina K. Designs Masking Magic 1/2" strips

Neenah White 120# cardstock

Spellbinders Gold Mirror cardstock (layer behind flowers)

My Favorite Things Boysenberry cardstock

Trinity crystal gems "Unicorn Tears"

Tombow Mono Glue

Martha Stewart bright gold glitter

Stash purple butterfly

Bird Houses

Hello, friends,

When I saw this bird house die set by Stampin' Up, I felt the need to have it --- deep down in my bones 🦴😂 

It was not hard to cut all the smaller pieces out and then use a jewel pick tool to put this together. This isn't the usual card technique for me but it still isn't as daunting as die cut inlay. Boy, die cut inlay - that tests my personality flaws. 

Here are just a couple bird house cards I made for local friends that show me much love. Hope you like these, too.

Card Ingredients:

• Country Bird House Die Set by Stampin' Up
• Various small flowers and leaves by Spellbinders & Sizzix 
• All coloring done with Copic markers
• Color Cardstock by GKD
• Silver Metallic cardstock by Spellbinders
• Pattern paper from stash
• Ink Versafine Onyx Black
• Sentiment Thanks a Million by GKD
• Stamps of Life (banner, You are Amazing and banner die)
• Infinity Arch Dies by Hero Arts
• Gems from stash
• Butterfly cut out Couture Creations colored with Copics
• Adhesive Foam under many of the little pieces 

Thank you for stopping by.

Rose Watercolor for Pinkfresh Studios Challenge

 Aloha again!

I don't have much time to type because this needs to be linked asap. But it's also for the Pinkfresh Studios Patterns & Colors August Challenge ending in about 5 minutes :( (Update: I had one whole minute to spare after getting this linked up. 😉

I gold heat embossed, then watercolored the roses. I tried to keep this card simple, just adding a few black pearls and splatter with the watercolor. I want to give this to our daughter to thank her for doing so much yard work to help Bruce and me. 

This and the previous card are entered as my first time for Pinkfresh challenges. I've been getting some of their products over the last 3 months or so. I guess that makes me a newbie to their company. I really do enjoy watching their videos and in particular, Carissa Wiley. Some day I would like to try their blending brushes.

Card Ingredients:

• Fancy Rose Bunch by Pinkfresh Studios (the stamp and the sentiment)
• Ranger Gold Embossing Powder
• Versafine Embossing Ink
• Versafine Black Ink
• Arches watercolor paper
• Cardstock by Gina K. Designs
• Adhesive Foam 
• Double sided tape
• Liquid Glue
• Kuratake Watercolors
• Black adhesive backed pearls from stash

Here is a link to see Pinkfresh August Challenges:

Pinkfresh Challenge for August

Patterns & colors, 5 x 7 easel card, Pinkfresh Studios August Challenge

 Aloha, friends,

Pinkfresh Studios has a challenge right now about utilizing patterns as well as several colors they chose. I used lots of patterns: Swiss dot, strips, arches, ombre coloring, rectangles and diagonal scoring. I used 3 of the 5 color choices. The challenge is over tonight at midnight.

I started by blending an ombre aqua to create a teal to aqua color background. I die cut this with strip dies, then die cut the strips with an arch die. Carefully, I adhered the arch cut strips into a spaced arch shape over a peach color layer. The peach color panel was previously embossed with a Swiss dot folder. I put the rectangle outline die cut leftover piece, also ombre blended, around the strips design. All of this went onto a diagonal hand-scored white panel, then onto an aqua panel, and again onto another soft peach color layer. This went onto a 5' x 7" white easel card base. 

I die cut a long leafy branch and adhered it to the right side of the strip panel. After stenciling color onto a floral bouquet with a lemon, I adhered this with foam over the branch and strip cut background. I added the "friend" sentiment on adhesive foam, and used double sided tape to add a gold heat embossed butterfly onto vellum also backed with a butterfly white die cut. I finally added aqua and peach color panels to the bottom of the easel card with another stacked sentiment "just because" to act as the stopper for the top portion of the easel card. For the final step, I added some iridescent sequins in a semi circle along the right side of the design. 

I took this one outside since it was such a pretty day.

Click for Pinkfresh Studios August 2025 Challenge

Card Ingredients

Products by Pinkfresh Studios

• Citrus Bloom Stamps/Dies/Stencils (small bouquet)
• Color Block Strip Dies (strips and mini rectangle frame)
• Phrase Builder Stamps/Dies "Hello" set (main sentiment)
• Curvy Foliage Die (leafy branch in background)
• Happy Blooms Frame (border for stopper sentiment)
• Dahlia Bunch (just because sentiment on bottom)
• Inks (peach colors)

Products also used

• Infinity Arch Dies by Hero Arts
• Color Cardstock by Stampin' Up
• White Cardstock by Hammermill and Neenah Classic Crest 110#
• Sizzix 49th & Market Engraved Wings Stamps & Framlit Dies (butterfly)
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dot Embossing Folder
• Ranger Fine Detailed God Embossing Powder
• Simon Says Stamp Premium Vellum
• Inks VersaFine Black and Stampin' Up Teals to Aquas
• Stampin' Up iridescent sequins

Mahalo for stopping by 🫶