HAPPY!

The new Simon Says Stamp Lil Critters Boston Terrier die, from their newest Send Happiness release, is SO stinkin cute!!  He just makes me happy, and I wanted to make a card that expressed that to whoever he gets sent to(along with the recepient making me happy, too, of course...haha!)...

 I die cut and layered the puppy, and colored half his eyes with black marker.  I used the new CZ Design Happy Days stamp/die set for the "HAPPY" and one of the new CZ Design Reverse Happy sentiment strips.  I used Simon Fog ink with the Simon Geo Leaves stencil for some fun background, and Tonic Jewel drops for some bling.  Here's a close up...

Hope you're having a HAPPY day(hey, no matter how tough things are, happy can be what you make it), wherever you are, and please, stay safe!! 

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Send Happiness Blog Hop!...Day 1

I am thrilled to be a part of Simon Says Stamp's newest Send Happiness release Blog Hop today over at the Simon Blog!   I am joining a number of talented artists, celebrating and showcasing the newest products from Simon Says Stamp and CZ Design! 

 Sending happiness to others has never been needed more than it is now!  There is a lot of happy and happiness in these new stamps/dies and accessories to help make that happen!!

I have used one of the new cool and pretty CZ Design dies, Chunky Flower die, to make three similiar simply designed cards...but all with subtle differences...

 For all my cards, I used paint chips for the petals.  For all my cards I used the die's background die to make a "window" for the flower to sit in.  For all my cards, I took advantage of something I stumbled upon, when I turned the flower while putting it together...

I thought the "turn" gave the flower some extra dimension, so I did it for all three cards.  For all the cards, I placed tombow adhesive over the entire die cut flower, then added an outline of the die cut flower, and the paint chips(sixteen different colors on the first one...yes 16...cutting three pieces at a time:) ), then two layers of die cut outlines on top of those, turned.  I did make the first card square, and the layering a bit different on all three although it's not super easy to see.  The first one is level with the aperture(window).  I used one of the fun new CZ Design Reverse Happy sentiment strips, and added my much loved morning dew Tonic drops.  Here's a close up...

The second one, I chose to make the flower sit slightly higher than the aperture, and used three shades of purple paint chips for the flower...

I used one of the new sentiments from the CZ Design Happy Days stamp set, and more Tonic drops.  Here's a close up... 

 The third one, I chose to have the flower inset in the aperture (I used thicker pop up dots), and randomly used three shades of yellow paint chips for the flower...

 I thought this flower looked like a sunny smile, so I used a sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp's Under the Weather stamp set (from the Sunny Days Ahead release).  I again dotted with Tonic drops for some added "bling".  Here's a close up... 

OK...my fun is above, your fun is below!  

Simon Says Stamp will be generously giving a $25 coupon to one commenter from each and every blog on the hop, simply leave a comment for a chance to win!!  The winners will be chosen and be posted on the Simon Says Stamp Blog on Wednesday, July 1st, 

so make sure you check the blog on the 1st, to see if you're a winner! 

   The list of participants of the hop are below.  If you get lost, you can head to the Simon Says Stamp Blog...hope you will check out all the amazing artists' inspiration today!! 

Simon Says Stamp Blog 

Kristina Werner

Cathy Zielske

Nina-Marie Trapani

Nichol Spohr

Yana Smakula

Amy Rysavy

                                         Lisa Addesa <------- YOU ARE HERE

Heather Ruwe

Suzy Plantamura

Bibi Cameron

Barb Engler

Cheiron Brandon

Lea Lawson

Ashlea Cornell

Don't forget about the offer from Simon in the banner, above, for your choice of one of four enamel pins with any purchase during this hop...until the end of the day on June 29th...or until supplies last...just use the codes above at checkout!!  

I hope you have been inspired and will continue to find happiness along the blog trail today!!  There is a second day of inspiration tomorrow, with a second Blog Hop, so check Simon's Blog tomorrow for lots more happiness...and don't forget to send some happiness...it feels  amazing!💗

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Send Happiness...Love You

There's a new release at Simon Says Stamp, today!!  SEND HAPPINESS is here, and it is FULL of stamps, dies, stencils and accessories, that are sure to bring lots of happiness!!...

I used the amazing new CZ Design Chunky Love You die and the cool, fun, Simon Says Stamp Scallop Border die!  I die cut the scallops in a variety of patterned paper colors and adhered to a cardstock panel.  I cut it and adhered to a card.  I die cut a heart with one of the Simon Nested Heart dies, and adhered the die cut and layered LOVE YOU into the heart.  Here's a close up...

Oh My Goodness...there is fun galore with this release...hope you will check it out!!  There will be hops tomorrow and Sunday, hope you will check them out at the Simon Blog!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

With Sympathy

I used the new CZ Design With Sympathy die from the new Simon Says Stamp Crafty Hugs release to make a couple simply designed sympathy cards...

 Sometimes sympathy cards are needed with little to no notice.  I'm not sure about you, but sympathy cards, having time or not,  are the hardest kind of cards to make, especially when you have to have one. With this new sympathy die, making a card can be pretty simple.  The die is of significant size, so not much is needed for this pretty stand alone sentiment.  I paired it with the new Center Cut Hexagon Floral background stamp, for my first card.  I stamped the hexagons with Simon Barely Beige ink on a cream colored card, and embossed with a matte clear embossing powder.  I die cut and layered the sentiment and used Morning Dew Tonic drops over the sentiment. Here's a close up... 

 For the second one, I paired the sentiment with the pretty new Simon Says Stamp Peony Bouquet cling stamp...

 I stamped the peonies with Simon Smoke ink on light cream cardstock.  For both cards, I used my MISTI to make sure the stamping was consistent over the entire image.  Often with one stamping a large stamp like these on cardstock, the ink will not be totally consistent over the whole image....the MISTI is a wonderful solution to avoid this happening.  I die cut and layered the sympathy sentiment, and gave it a vellum backing to give it a little muting from the flowers in the background.  I dotted the flowers with a few tonic drops for a little "something"  Here's a close up...

Sympathy cards made easy for a not so easy occasion.  Hope you are doing well, stay safe!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Friends Rule!

I used the cute new CZ Design US of Craft-Ay stamp/die set from the new Simon Says Stamp Crafty Hugs release, to make a card for a friend...

I thought the ruler from this set was soooo cute!!  I stamped, die cut, colored and layered the rulers.  I used Tonic Drops over the hearts for some interest.  I used part of a sentiment from the set, and stamped the heart stamp, also from the set, randomly around the card base.  I popped up the black panel on the heartfilled panel to complete the card.  Here's a close up...

Such fun!!  Hope you will be having a good weekend:)!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Sending Swirling Love

The pretty Simon Says Stamp Etched Swirl Heart die from the Crafty Hugs release spoke to me of moving love, like wind...

 When I die cut this pretty heart, I loved that the die cut swirls could be popped out.  I opted to layer the heart several times and popped the swirls out using all three layers, to give the pop out some substance.  I dotted with Tonic drops and adhered to a panel embossed with Simon's Stitched Whirl Background die. One of the sentiments from the new Greetings Mix 2 stamp set went perfectly with this pretty heart.  I stamped and embossed the senitment BEFORE embossing the swirls, but to keep the embossing of the swirls from affecting the sentiment, I placed a stamped a hand cut same sentiment OVER the stamped and embossed sentiment on the panel, to avoid having the sentiment have holes in it (make sure you cut out the mask as close to the letters as possible).  Here's a close up...   

Sending love, hope you're staying safe whatever part of the country or world you are in!  

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Happy Father's Day...Dada

Knowing that Father's Day is soon approaching, I was playing around with the CZ Design "dad" die last week, from the Mom and Dad die set, and found a new way to use it...  

I partially die cut the dad die, then moved the die over,  partially die cut again, adding another "a",and made "dada".  When I showed it to my daughter, she immediately thought of the Jimmy Fallon book they have(and most babies proabably have, the cover shown below), and wanted a Father's Day card made with the die cut, for her 11month old son to give his dada.  

I used a shade of blue like the one on the cover.  I then pulled out a very old much loved Lawn Fawn set of stamps, Critters on the Farm (my set is EIGHT YEARS OLD...and Lawn Fawn STILL sells it...you know I'm not the only one who loves it!).  Now, I know my bull is not like the one on/in the book, but it was the only one I had, and I'm sure my son-in-law will "get it".  I even purchased the dies to these stamps since I thought of making this card(eight years ago, there were no dies, but I KNEW I had to have them), and they were delivered in record time, but just like the sentiment die had to be "modified", so did the cow...into a bull.  I did put the dies in my product list below in case you were interested.   I had to hand cut the cow, and cut off her eyelash(even though I'm sure bulls have eyelashes, I was going for as much "manly"  as possible).  I also had to cut off her udder...nope,  bulls don't have udders. I then had to stamp and cut out an extra front leg to replace the one in the back, that with the removal of the udder, is now, no longer long enough.   By performing surgery with my scissors, I made my cow look a bit more bullish.  I colored the bull and used some lawn fawn cloud dies, and the picket fence from the Critter set (I also hand cut out the fence pieces, as I wanted the blue background to show through AMAP(as much as possible)(I colored the middles of the fences with sky blue marker).  I gave my daughter the choice of a stick on eye with a bigger and smaller pupil, she chose the bigger one.  I hand drew in the grass.  Here's a close up...

Just had to show you this card to show you that if you want, dies AND stamps have more uses than maybe they were originally made for.  You just have to have to get a little creative!  Oh, so much fun!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Overlapping Radiant Hearts

I made a card with the cool an pretty Simon Says Stamp's Radiant Hearts stencil, from their newest Crafty Hugs release...

I tried a bunch of different colors and positions with this stencil, but my final thought was to use one color of ink, and make light and darker rows overlapped...and I "loved" it:)!!  I combined the hearts with the Simon You are Loved die, layered three times,  and a CZ Design simple sentiment stamp, stamped on black with versamark and white embossed.  Here's a close up...

I have to say, this was really so much fun...loved seeing all these hearts look so sweet together!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

The Beautiful Dragonfly

I've made a card with the new Simon Says Stamp Etched Dragonfly die from the new Crafty Hugs release...

Dragonflies (from Dragonfly-site.com)  in almost every part of the world, symbolize change and change in the perspective of self realization (when I looked that up, some of my take away...becoming selfless and sensitive to the problems of the world); and the kind of change that has its source in mental and emotional maturity and the understanding of the deeper meaning of life. 

The Dragonfly’s scurrying flight across water represents an act of going beyond what’s on the surface and looking into the deeper implications and aspects of life. 

I will never look at or think of a dragonfly the same way, again!

 This beautiful little insect die could not have been created at a better time than this...reminding us that change in perspective, and understanding by learning, listening and being a part of healing is what is so needed by me, my family, my city, our country and world...Black lives Matter! 

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Thinking of You

I've made a card with the cool new Simon Says Stamp Thinking of You Line die from their newest release, Crafty Hugs!...

 I die cut both the THINKING and the "of you" three times and layered.  I then used a strip of patterned paper to used behind the THINKING and popped up the panels above and below the sentiment.  I dotted with three jeweled Tonic drops for some added interest.  Here's a close up...

Simply done...simply fun! 

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa