Be not afraid...

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you a butterfly card. I hadn't made one for a while now so I had to clench my thirst. 
The inspiration came from yesterday's CAS challenge (CAS284) at SplitCoast Stamper. I CASEd this card... 

The butterfly is from Majestic Monarchs clear stamp set, and it was die-cut with the coordinating Monarch Dies. The background was stamped with the wood grain image from Grunge Borders clear stamp set with White Luxe Memento ink... the words are from Be Encouraged clear stamp set. 

... but wait... while it was a beautiful CAS (Clean and Simple) card, I just had to make it more 'fancy'... so I added some flowers and this and that... 

I die-cut some flowers out of Vellum with the Kindness Flower Dies and stamped the coordinating images from Kindness clear stamp set with VersaMark, then I poured white embossing powder on the flowers and heat embossed them with my heat gun. These flowers gave my card a light and fluffy touch.

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

Elaina name frame

Good morning! We are gearing up for another new release so be sure to check the store on Friday!  
Today, though, I have a project to share that I recently made for a baby shower gift.  I used lots of Sweet 'n Sassy products to create a fun name frame to match the baby's nursery décor.

This is one of those projects that looks much cuter in person!  It's so hard to photograph without getting a glare from the glass and it's difficult to see the dimension with embossing and foam dots.  I have a few close ups to see it better.

The nursery is decorated with owls, so I used the Owl Be Here stamp set.  I didn't have a die large enough for the size of branch I needed so I cut my own.  Then I embossed it with a woodgrain embossing folder and sponged it with ink.

The flowers were diecut with the SNSS Kindness dies and accented with the Small Leaves.  I also diecut the Clouds and Sun with SNSS dies and the sun was accented with one of the Stars Dies.  The butterfly is from the Majestic Monarchs dies and the banner flags are from the Pennants & More dies.  Lastly, I added a single heart from the Heart Dies.

One of my favorite parts is the embossed clouds!

Besides owls, the nursery has some paisley so I made sure to add a paisley cloud.  I couldn't help but to sneak in some tiny embossed hearts too!

I hope this inspires you to create some framed art of your own.  I sure had fun creating this one!  I almost changed my name so I could keep it.  ;)

Have a blessed week, friends!

♥ Diane

Springtime Sparrows

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you a Spring card. 

I wanted to make something that looked soft and delicate. I decided to do some water coloring.

I stamped the image (Springtime Sparrows clear stamp set) on watercolor paper with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it using White embossing powder. Then I colored the whole image with blue Tattered Angel Glimmer Mist (straight from the bottle with a paint brush). After that, I filled in the images with pink and green ink, and at the end, splattered some more blue ink on.

I kept the embellishing simple. I added some pearls and Baker's Twine.

I die-cut a bloom with the smallest die from Kindness Flowers Die set out of Vellum card stock and stamped the coordinating image on (Kindness clear stamp set) with VersaMark... then I heat embossed it.

The sketch came from The Sweet Stop, SSS198. We are giving away a prize this week, so please stop by and play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by,

Monika

Praise the Lord ~

I love when the stamp set and die coordinate beautifully!!! My heart sings when it all comes together...It is indeed the little things that bring me Joy. I have been into crisp fall cards recently that I felt a need to divert  my attention to pretty birds and flowers for this post. Praise the Lord is a beautiful set that comes with one scripture and four sentiments/declarations. I combined the Kindness die flowers as my embellishments and placed pearls in the centre of each blossom for a complete look. 

Why not pull out your sets and see what kind of combinations you can coordinate with your dies? Check out the dies in the store if you don't own any SNSS exclusive dies. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a blessed day!

~Mary

Stamps: Praise the Lord

Inks: Copics, Memento, TH distress inks, SU

Paper: SU, MME

Embellishments: Pearls, Spellbinders, SU punch, SNSS die, Seam binding ribbon

Kindness

Hello! It's Monika here today, bringing you a shaped card with some creative folds.
I challenged myself to make a Circle Side Step Card. Beate has a fabulous tutorial on SplitCoastStampers. I followed her directions, but I did make mine a bit smaller, so it fits an A2 envelope.

I am not ready for fall yet, so I used some pretty flowers on my card (no butterflies!). It never gets old or goes out of style, and works for almost all occasions. These pretties came from Kindness clear stamp set, and I used the coordinating Kindness Flower die set.

The frame was made with one of the Decorative Plaque dies and a square die from Spellbinders. To give texture to it, I stamped the wood grain image from Grunge Borders clear stamp set repeatedly on the frame. After cutting the opening out, I glued a piece of old book page behind it, that was spritzed with brown ink.

The background was stamped with Music Background clear stamp set. Another image that can be used for any occasions. I used one more fun die, the grass from Fence & Grass die set. 

To embellish my card, I used ribbon, pearls, Baker's Twine, Stickles, Cheese cloths, buttons, and a Tim Holtz pin that holds the greeting.

Hope you will challenge yourself to make something different today! Give your creativity a go!

Monika