Etched Layered Daisy

I used the very pretty Simon Says Stamp Etched Layered Daisy die amd Printmaking Florals sentiment, from their STAMPtember® release to make a card to share with you today!...

This card was simply done by die cutting the two-part daisy, coloring and popping up the pieces in it's center, layering a second layer, and adhering the two pieces together.  I stamped a gray piece of cardstock on masked ripped circular piece of paper on the Simon You Are cling stamp, loving the wording on this stamp for the final sentiment, the added pretty Printmaking Florals sentiment.  Popped up the gray panel on the card and done!  Here's a close up...

Again, loving the flower dies in this release...so pretty, easy to create with, and they have wonderful dimension..such fun!!  

Thank you so much for stopping by, today!! Hugs to you!! Lisa

Card for a Student...Card for a Teacher!

I have made a couple cards with some of the cool new CZ Design and Simon Says Stamp stamps/dies, from their new STAMPtember® release!  I made one card for a student, and the second for a teacher...

I used the new CZ Design Love that Student stamp/die set for this first card.  I stamped, embossed, die cut, and colored the pencils. I used random markers for the pencils, and my Prisma fine point silver marker for the pencil tops.  I randomly attached the pencils in-between two panels that had stamped and embossed sentiment stamps.  The "student" is stamped with versamark and black embossed.  Here's a close up...

The second card is for a teacher...

Just as it is so important to encourage students, teachers need support and encouragement as well!  I used the new CZ Design A+ die and Simon Ledger Paper cling stamp for the background, stamping with Simon 

Two pretty easy and super fun cards to make!  Love cards that tell others how wonderful they are!!  Hope you are having a great start to your week!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Lined Maple Leaves

I've made a card with the pretty and cool new Simon Says Stamp Lined Leaves stamp/die set, from their new STAMPtember® release!...

When I saw these leaves, I fell in love!  I immediately thought of mosaic and stained glass.  So, as I have been known to do, of late, I googled, and found this pic...

I did try to add a blue strip or two, and vary the colors in my first attempts, but really liked the Fall colors more...I'm just not always very adventurous(just ask my family).  SO...I stamped the maple leaf in my MISTI with Simon Smoke colored ink, colored the leaf with my markers, put it back into the MISTI, swiped with a static bag, stamped this time with versamark, and black embossed the leaves.  I love, love, love the look of black embossing shine...I just get such a happy feeling everytime it happens...the raised outline, the deep black lines, and the shine are so cool to me!!  A look of stained glass, and happiness to me.   I kind of fit the leaves around the sentiment, and didn't adhere them perfectly in a row or spaced perfectly...just slightly changing that three-leaves-in-a-row up!  Here's a couple close ups to show you the black embossing on the leaves and the second one, the sentiment...

The sentiment is from the new Simon set, XL Greetings 3. Shine, shine, shine...

Only two days 'til it's officially Fall...the fall of the leaves has already started in my yard.  I have a VERY LARGE Tulip tree, and info from the Arbor Day Foundation:

 George Washington planted tuliptrees at Mount Vernon which are now 140' tall. And Daniel Boone used the wood of this tree for his 60' dugout canoe.

It is one of the largest native trees in North America, and I have one in my fenced in backyard.  The front yard has a River Birch...both beautiful, both huge, and both have LOTS of leaves.  I love my trees, and wouldn't trade either of them for anything, but the older I get, the tougher Fall gets.  I wish someone would invent a really good leaf sweeper(there are lots of them, and have read many reviews, but they don't work)...until then, lots of bags and raking!  Rambling done...have a great Fall week!!

Thanks for coming by, today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Framed Etched Layered Daisy

Sharing a couple cards I made with the really pretty new Simon Says Stamp Etched Layered Daisy Stem die set, from their new STAMPtember® release!...

I have to say...I LOVE this daisy die!!!  I think it is truly one of the prettiest daisy dies I have ever worked with!  The detail on the petals and the leaves make for a not only pretty in it's design and details flower, but also wonderfully dimensional flower!  With almost no effort, you have a beautiful daisy straight from the die, with only a marker for the middle, and some bends with your fingers to give the petals, middle, and leaves some dimension.  I made both cards the same, birthday cards simply made with a thin border, the first black, the second white, just because I loved the simplicity of it when I made the first one so, so, much, I figured, why mess with someting you love so much?!  I stamped the sentiment right onto the card with versamark and black embossed.  Here's a close up of the first one...

Here's the second one with the white border...

Both my daughters liked the black bordered one better, but I really love the white border, so I put this one up, as well!  Here's a close up...

Okay...hope you are enjoying your weekend!  I just raked my first leaves of the season with my two year old grandson...I have such great fun, and love being a Grammie!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

A Daisy Hello

I have made a card with the Hero Arts Fancy Die Bees and Flowers, and a CZ Design sentiment die...

I think I've said it a bunch of times, but for those of you who may not have heard, I love daisies!  I've been on a bit of a shopping spree, of late, and one of my purchases was this pretty set of dies by Hero Arts! I know, the name of the set is Bees and Flowers, interesting name for this set of dies, and there are bee dies, but sorry, not a bee on this card. I die cut the flowers, then colored the centers and stems, and added the leaves from one of the other flowers from the set.  I used a layered sentiment die from CZ Design.  I pulled out some burlap, I had multiple 12x12 pieces from YEARS ago, in three different shades of brown.  I had meant to emboss the card panel with a piece of burlap, but decided I liked the look of the burlap, itself  better, so I cut a strip, frayed the edges a bit, attached to the card, and adhered the flowers and sentiment to the burlap.  Here's a close up...

Daisies just make me happy...hope your day has some happy in it!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Leaves Wreath...Thankful

I have made a card with the very pretty new Simon Says Stamp's  two part Leaves Wreath Stencil set, and the Thankful for You die from their new STAMPtember® release!...

This two part stencil is so cool, and makes some beautiful leaves, as one stencil is the leaves, the second is the stems!  I used three distress oxide inks and a Simon brown ink for the stems, with my Simon brushes...love how with Fall leaves a little two tone color is so pretty!  I also used some glossy accents to dot the colored circles around the wreath.  I could not bear to cut out any part of the wreath off the card, so I made it a square, and framed it with gold cardstock.  I brushed the oxide ink in a strip and cut the background border for the sentiment fr4om the colored piece.  I die cut and layered the sentiment.  I also made an envelope for the card, slightly seen behind the close up from my we r memory keepers, as I don't have square envelopes, and it was a tad larger than 5x5, so it's a 6x6 envelope.  Here's a close up...

I am so thankful for so many things! On this day, I am especially thankful for heroes...our world is a kinder and a so much better place because of them!  Hope you are having a good weekend...

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

Chunky Thankful

I have made a card using a wonderful new CZ Design die and a new Simon Says Stamp background stamp from Simon's newest STAMPtember® release!...

I have to say, I have had this die cut sentiment die cut for a couple weeks.  I had one night where it was not feasible to take Noah in my craft room, so I brought my Big Shot out to my den with some cardstock and a bunch of dies, and had a little die cutting party!!...

I have used all but a couple of the die cuts above on other cards, but thought it time to make a card with the "THANKFUL"!  I had an idea that I wanted to use the pretty leaves from the new Peel Apart Leaves stamp with the "thankful" die.  So, I stamped the whole stamp(cool how you can take the background stamp apart...but for another time and card) with Smoke ink in my MISTI.  I then colored the leaves with markers, put the colored paper back in my MISTI, swiped with my static bag, stamped with Versamark, and gold embossed.  Okay, background done!  I wasn't as sure what I wanted to do with the sentiment, though.  I knew I wanted the border around the letters to be gold, to go with the border of the leaves.  I first colored the letters to match the color of the leaves in the background.  I used the gold border and the white background die cut from the sentiment die set.   I also wanted to use a small stamped sentiment, made into a strip, with the Thankful.  So I gold embossed a sentiment, and cut it into a very thin strip.  Here's what it looked like...

The colored letters were "pretty", but more cute, and fun, while I think I was really going for classic/y look.  I had a thought of a card that I saw on Instagram, that I really liked, made by Cathy Zielske,  the designer of, and using,  the Thankful die, HERE!   Thank you, Cathy, for the beautiful inspiration!  I loved how she filled in the die cut sentiment with white, so I tried white..

So,  I sent the two pictures to my daughter, she said she liked it best in white, so that was now a definite, as I value her opinion...and I liked it, too!   Only thing was, I now wasn't sure about the sentiment strip, so I took that off, AND, oh yeah, I almost forgot added some jewel drops...

THEN...I wasn't sure I liked the background on the sentiment, so I removed it, and came up with the final card you see in the beginning, and the close up, below!...

Just wanted you to know that some cards, well, most cards, are definitely a process.  This one was such a process, that I photographed each revision, thinking I liked that one the best, only to keep revising!  Super fun, though, and I would love to hear which revision you would have gone with?!  Hope you are doing well and staying safe!  

Thanks for stopping by!! Hugs!! Lisa

Etched Meadow Flower and Leaves

I am most happy making clean and simple cards, and I have to say, I am really in a very clean and simple mode of late!  I made a simple, quick and easy birthday card this morning, with the beautiful new Simon Says Stamp Etched Meadow Flower and Leaves die from their STAMPtember® release!...

I had cut out the leaves from paint chips(for another idea that didn't happen...yet, anyway), and colored the stem of the flower and the flower, itself, with markers.  LOVE how the paint chips were the same color as the color of the prismacolor marker, not planned, at all!  I stamped the sentiment from an older Simon set, and adhered the flower and leaves to the card panel with a couple little glue dots on the backside of the flower, and tape runner on a few parts of the stems.  I used the cut lines in the flower and leaves to make folds in them both, that gave them very cool dimension!! I LOVE this about the flower dies in the STAMPtember® release..their etching gives them dimension!!   I popped the panel up on a card, added a few jewel drops, and done!  Here's a close up...

Ahhhh...simply done birthday card....and this beautiful flower die makes it so easy to accomplish that...happiness!!  

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa

STAMPtember® Party!

There's a party going on at Simon Says Stamp's Blog, today!!  I am a thrilled to be a part of this wonderful party, celebrating Simon's STAMPtember® release!!  This release happens every year, is a month long celebration of all things stamping and cardmaking, and is by far, Simon's biggest release!!  There are also amazing collaborations with other stamp companies throughout the month!  You can go to the Simon Blog to see all the participants at today's party, it is going to be inspirational and fun!!  

I made a card today, that uses one of the beautiful new dies, to share for the party....

I don't know about you, but these last couple years have been really hard.  I haven't seen one of my daughters in almost 2 years.  I miss her more than any words, but had an idea for a card that would help me express it a bit better.  I am from Western New York, where the Maple trees are everywhere, and maple leaves are right up there with rainbows and daisies, for me, when it comes to things I love!  I knew my daughter would understand this leaf, meaning another Fall that we have been apart.  This Ornate Leaves die is beautiful and if you know me, you might guess that paint chips are the only way that I could fill in the pieces of this pretty ornate leaf...

I die cut a leaf, put runner adhesive all over the die cut, and then put the the outline and paint chip pieces on the adhesive.  I used three shades of yellow to fill in the pieces.  The paint chips I used were narrow , I couldn't cut whole leaves from eachy shade, so I had to adjust my die cutting to make certain I got the right parts of the leaf to coincide with the needed pieces for shading on the die cut (hope that makes sense!).  I then adhered two more die cut outlines onto the colored leaf.  I adhered the leaf to a card with two outlines adhered to the card, and a pretty new sentiment from the Printmaking Florals stamp set!  Here's a close up...

I had so much fun creating a card with such a pretty maple leaf and sentiment!!  

I hope you will check out the party over at the Simon Blog!  There is an offer and code in the banner at the top of my post, for a Large Happy Birthday die with the purchase of $30 or more!  The really cool and fun part of this offer, is that it's not the only one at the party!  Think of this as a sort of scavenger hunt...there are different offers at different stops at the party...you will need to check out the other places at the party to uncover the other wonderful offers!!  Hope you are not only inspired by the party, but have fun along the way... and, like me, find something you just can't live without:)!!

Have fun, and thanks for stopping by today!! Hugs!! Lisa

STAMPtember® Release Crocuses

Happy STAMPtember®!!  Today is the day that Simon Says Stamp releases their wonderful new STAMPtember®  products, and I am so very excited to start sharing this release, with some beautiful flower dies from this new release, the Etched Crocus Stems!...  

I am really in love with the new flower dies, they are simply beautiful and so wonderfully designed, the detail in them makes them come to life on paper!  The crocus even go a bit further in their detail, as the die cut petals give extra depth with flower petals designed to go behind one another!  Lots of crocuses are purple, so I opted to make mine purple.  The first card, they are simply die cut from cardstock, the second, colored with markers.  I love that you can bend the leaves and the flower petals to give them dimension!!  I framed the crocuses in an oval frame and added a cut sentiment from an older Simon sentiment stamp set.  Here's a close up...

The second one, simply done by coloring...

I added a hand cut sentiment strip with the new Simon strips from this release, and masked the background with a Simon stencil and older background stamp.  Here's a close up of this one...

Oh...my...goodness....I just love these flowers, and there are more to come...there is SO MUCH beauty, cool and simply fun, in this new release!!  Can't wait until tomorrow, when there will be a Simon Party, celebrating STAMPtember®!!  Make sure you check out the Simon Blog tomorrow, to see how you can join the party, it will be inspiring, for sure!  I'll be at the party, too, hope to "see" you there!!

Thanks for visiting me today!! Hugs!! Lisa