"We do not remember days, we remember moments." Cesare Pavese

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Just Us Girls Guest Designer Week 3 - Moodboard

 Hello, hello!  I'm back to share my project for this week's JUGs challenge.  This week is mood board week it is a pretty one!   Let's have a look at what I made.


Of all the cards I had to create for this month's JUGs challenges this one was the easiest by far. Initially I thought it was going to be hard because I don't have much in the way of umbrella themed products.  But as I was thinking about what to do I was also going through my crafty stash and came across these pre-printed cards that I had gotten in a Simon Says Stamp card kit several years ago.  I idly flip through them and saw this one with the cute little chick and her umbrella.  Perfect for the challenge as the mood board features umbrellas!  Problem solved - YAY!   The image is printed on watercolor cardstock so I pulled out my Jane Davenport watercolors and got going painting this cute little image up.  Once I was done with the watercoloring and the image was dry I added a bit of gloss to the little raindrops using glossy accents.   When the glossy accent drops were dry I die cut the panel and adhered it to a yellow cardstock base with foam tape.   I love it when a card comes together like that!


Well, that's it for me today.  I hope you will take up the challenge of this week's mood board and play along at JUGs.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.


Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Birthday Wishes

 Hello!  Popping in with a card for a few challenges:  Sunday Stamps (sketch) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (food or drink - some people think candy is food, lol!).  I had wanted to enter this in the Color Hues challenge, but missed the deadline.  Shoot!  Going to add this to Seize the Birthday in the anything goes category.    Let's have a look at what I created.


This card came about because I really like the sketch at Sunday Stamps and I wanted to make something with it.  In fact I liked the sketch so much I made another card using that same sketch.  I will be sharing that one on Friday on the Birch Press Design blog so stay tuned, lol!  When I started this card I originally made a little cupcake using the Sweet Birthday stamp and die set from Simon Says Stamp.  I stamped the cupcake pieces and colored them with Copic markers.  Once I put the cupcake together I didn't like it.  I really didn't like it after I decided to add some glossy accents and Rock Candy glitter.  So I threw it away and started over.  This time with the heart shaped lollipop in the stamp set.  I stamped it twice and colored each one with Copic markers approximating the Color Hues colors.   Once that was done I added highlights with a white gel pen.  I think I added too many, but what is done is done, lol!  I then die cut a panel of white cardstock and stenciled tiny blue hearts using Chipped Sapphire distress ink.  To keep the heart theme going I used a Poppystamps circle die set that features hearts.  I adhered that to my panel and then added the two lollipops.   The die cut sentiment is also from Simon Says Stamp and this was my first time using it.  I colored some white cardstock with two of the Copic markers used to color the fuchsia lollipop and then die cut the words.   I used extra heavy vellum to die cut the shadow layer, adhered the words with glue and then added the sentiment to finish the card.  






Well, that's it for me.  Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!


Thursday, April 9, 2026

Just Us Girls Guest Designer Word Week - Spotlight

Hello everyone!  It is word week at JUGs this time around and the word is spotlight technique.  I have to be honest and tell you that I was thrown for a bit of a loop when I saw the word.  Had to go look up the spotlight technique to make sure I knew what I was doing, lol!   It also didn't help that I was struggling with a bad head cold!  Thankfully I was able to persevere and get something made.  Let's look at what I created.


I hadn't used any of my Altenew products in quite some time and so I decided that I wanted to use them for this card.   I searched through what I had and settled on the Sweet Lilies stamps, stencil and die set.  I looked through my collection of Altenew Fresh Dye inks and settled on a grouping of light purples and light pinks for the flowers and darker greens for the leaves.  I then determined what size of circle die I was going to use for the spotlight portion of the card.  I picked a circle die that would include as much of one of the lilies in it as possible.  Then I stamped the image twice.  One for the spotlight portion and one for the full image as you see on the card.  Then I stenciled the flowers and the leaves.   Once I had the majority of the image that I would need stenciled I die cut it and then adhered it to the background panel with thin foam squares.  I finished the card with sentiments from the Simon Says Stamp Thanks, Mom stamp set.  I had been able to purchase the matching dies and used those as well.   


Well, that's it for me.  I hope you will play along with this week's technique.  It really is a fun one and there are lots of directions to go in.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.


Thursday, April 2, 2026

JUGS Guest Designer - Die Week - Easter or Spring

Hello everyone!  I'm so excited to be guest designing for Just Us Girls for the month of April!  Thanks so much for the JUGs team for having me.  It is week die week this week with a theme spring and/or Easter.  I went with Easter.  Let's have a look at what I made.


Since Easter is just a few days away I decided to make an Easter card for my pink loving great niece, Mia.  She absolutely loves pink!   You will pretty much always see her wearing something pink.   For the card I pulled out the super cute Bunny Ears die set from Waffle Flower.  This set is no longer available, sadly.  I die cut the majority of the pieces from white cardstock and then the ear fold over piece and the bow from a pink cardstock with little polka dots in it.  I added some Spun Sugar distress oxide ink to the interior piece and then adhered them to the main bunny ears, along with the fold over piece.   There is a little arched piece that covers up the bottom tips of the interior pieces and that was adhered with glue, as well, and then I added the little bow.  I used the Waffle Flower Happy Easter Duo stamp set for the large sentiment that was also stamped in pink ink (don't remember which one).  The sentiment was die cut with the matching die and then layered with two additional die cuts.  I also added two more layers to the bunny ears to give them a bit more substance.   For a little more interest and fun I embossed a white cardstock panel with the Simon Says Stamp Bouncy Bunny embossing folder and added it to a pink cardstock rectangle.  That was adhered to a white card base and then I added the bunny ears and sentiment.  I think Mia will love it!


Well, that is it for me!  I hope you will play along with JUGs this week and actually for the whole entire month of April.  They have a really good line up of challenges!   Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day.

Friday, March 27, 2026

just for you...

 Hello, hello!  I hope that everyone is doing well.  Spring is here and with the arrival of spring I got the worst cold I have had in about four years!   Knocked me on my butt cold!  This whole week has been a struggle to get anything done, but I did manage to make a card for a few challenges... only took me two days, lol!  I will be sending this card off to Freshly Made Sketches, JUGs (stencil week) and Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge (anything goes).  Let's look at what I created.  


When I saw it was stencil week at JUGs I immediately thought of several Waffle Flower stencil sets that I have but have not used.   One of the sets is called Painted Flower.   I thought it was a fun and unusual looking flower when I purchased the stencil and die combo.    The large center element on the FMS sketch looked perfect to create using two of the flowers.  So, I pulled out some coordinating Altenew Fresh Dye inks and got to work between blowing my nose, lol!  I used additional Waffle Flower products to complete my card:  A preprinted sentiment strip, some patterned paper and A2 frames die set.  Simple, but given my week I think I did pretty good!


Well, that's it for me.   Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely day!  


Thursday, March 26, 2026

Birch Press Design March Blog Post #2

 Hello, hello!  Popping in to let you know that I have a post up on the Birch Press Design blog today.  Here is a little peek of what I made.

I hope you will head over to the blog to check out what I made.  Thanks for stopping by today!