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For this nasturtiums themed birthday card, I used Spellbinders' "Nasturtium and Galvanized Wash Bucket" die set and some Distress Inks to create a one-of-a-kind bucket of goodness. The flower and leaf shaping was done by the help of watching Susan Tierney Cockburn's Youtube video - she's an excellent instructor - and this is the link to her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGyk1JEABjI



First, I used Ranger's Distress Inks in the colors Squeezed Lemonade and Kitsch Flamingo to ink smoosh to separate pieces of watercolor cardstock. I put Squeezed Lemonade ink on my mixed media mat, misted it with a bit of water, swirled it around with my finger tips, then dipped the watercolor cardstock into the ink several times, dried the panel, and continued until I had the look I desired. After that, I did the same thing with the Kitsch Flamingo ink and watercolor cardstock. When both panels were inked and dried, I used the petal dies from the die set and proceeded to cut as many pieces as I could of both the petal dies from the inky panels.


For the leaves, I cut nine sets from a piece of My Favorite Things' "Limelight" cardstock, then ink blended Distress Inks (Twisted Citron, Mowed Lawn, and Rustic Wilderness) across the die cuts until I had what appeared to be a decent leaf blend. After the Distress Ink dried, I used a Moonlight Gellyroll pen #427 to draw the veins on the leaves then followed Susan's instructions in the video listed above to form the leaves.


For the flower petals, I decided to ink the backs of each petal die cut with the coordinating color of Distress Ink to add color so they wouldn't be white when/if the backs are seen. After that, I used Diarylide Yellow Shade PanPastel and a foam applicator to apply shading to the centers of all the petals - both the pinks and yellows. I continued following the instructions in Susan's Youtube tutorial on the shaping and assembly of the flowers and stamin die cuts. I cut about 20 or so of the flower stamens and once they were assembled (following Susan's instruction video), I dipped them all in glue and then dipped the tops into Woodland Scenics "Yellow Paper Flower Pollen" that I purchased from Spellbinders and set those aside to dry.



I cut the planting container out of a scrap of grey cardstock and applied a generous coating of embossing ink across the entire die cut using the Distress Embossing Dabber. Next, I applied a sporadic layer of Ranger Ink's Antiquities Verdigris embossing powder and Potting Soil embossing powder until the entire die cut was coated. I let the excess fall onto a flattened coffee filter, then melted the embossing powder on the die cut with the heat gun. While the melted embossing powder was still hot, I dabbed portions of the die cut back into the powder on the coffee filter and melted the added embossing powder - I repeated this process until I was happy with the results.


To create my card front panel / background, I used a 5" x 5" piece of dark blue cardstock from my stash and 3D embossed it using Altenew's "Wicker Texture" 3D embossing folder. I put foam adhesive behind the plant container die cut and adhered it to the embossed panel and then began gluing the flowers and leaves on and around the opening of the container onto the card front. After the flowers were adhered, I began adding glue to the flower centers and glued the stamens in place.


My card base was created using a piece of Cardstock Warehouse "Stardream Gold" cardstock cut to 5-1/4" x 10-1/2" that I scored at the 5-1/4" mark. I put Simon Says Stamp's Big Momma foam tape on the back of the embossed panel and adhered it to the card base. My sentiment was created using a scrap piece of brown cardstock and using Spellbinders' "You Are Everything Sentiments" Betterpress plate along with a piece of gold foil that I ran through my Glimmer Foil System. After I die cut the sentiments, I selected the one I wanted to use and adhered it to the card front using thin foam squares.


I hope you enjoyed my Through the Arbor Garden themed card using Susan Tierney-Cockburn's die release.


Until next time... thank you and Happy Making!




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This stamp set isn't a new one for me, but is certainly one I enjoy creating cards and tags with. Today's card is a mini slimline card, not sure why I don't use this size more often!



I started with a scrap piece of watercolor paper that I taped to a watercolor hardbord so that it will remain flat when I start applying copious amounts of water to it. Since I planned to use the Whimsy Stamps "Black Hole" stamp set, I decided to create a nebula or galaxy background and this can be created easily with watercolor paints. For my paints, I chose to use the Mijello Mission Gold paints and chose the colors Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Hue No. 1, Indigo, Black, and Yellow Green. After the paints were applied, I used Winsor & Newton white gouache and a toothbrush to make my white starry layer.


I stamped the images I wanted to use for the card front from the Whimsy Stamps "Black Hole" stamp set using Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink so that the ink wouldn't smear when I started coloring them with Copic markers. The Copic markers I used are: for the alien, YG17, YG03, and YG01 - for the balloon, BG07, BG15, and BG32. After coloring the images, I fussy cut them out and applied Simon Says Stamp black, high loft (.08") 3D Foam Squares to the backs so they would really pop from the watercolored background panel.


For the sentiment, I used the Pinkfresh "Perfect Sentiments" stamp/die/hot foil set to stamp out the Happy Birthday sentiment and then die cut the words and made three additional die cuts for layering out of My Favorite Things' Limelight cardstock. I glued those layers together for a dimensional sentiment.


I die cut the watercolor panel using Honey Bee Stamps' "Sweet Stacks Mini Slimline" dies using the second to largest die in the set. Next, I cut a 6"x6" piece of the My Favorite Things' Limelight cardstock and scored it down the middle at 3" with my Scor-Buddy, folded it in half and used the bone folder to reinforce the fold... this created my mini slimline card base.


I put strips of Simon Says Stamps' Big Momma Foam tape to the back of the watercolor panel and adhered it to the card base and adhered the sentiment and images to the card front panel. My last task was to apply Ranger Glossy Accents to the alien's eyes and the balloon.


That completes this fun outer space themed birthday card, I hope you enjoyed it!


Until next time... happy making!

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I absolutely LOVE the "Fresh Picked.." series of dies that Spellbinders released this year. Each set is just as beautiful as the next and I find myself struggling with which set to pick for a card. For my final Valentine's Day card for this year I selected "Fresh Picked Anemones" and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out.



I started by cutting two of each of the greenery dies from Spellbinders' "Fern" cardstock. I decided to go with two layers for the stems since they are a bit fragile and I didn't want to bend them when I started applying them to the card front. For the flower petals, I cut the highlight die from Spellbinders' "Pink Sand" and the shadow layer die from Spellbinders' "Fruit Punch" cardstocks. Then for the flower centers, I cut them from Spellbinders' "Dune" and "Sunkissed" cardstocks.


For the card front, I used the Reverse Confetti "Folklore Cover Panel" and cut it out of Spellbinders' "Indigo" cardstock. I attached the cover panel to a top folding A2 card base.


Now that all the pieces are die cut I can start the assembly line process of assembling the flowers. I glued all the flowers together and attached them to their stems and began positioning them onto the Indigo cover panel. Once the final locations for the flowers were established I glued them to the card front.



I decided to add a foiled sentiment for this card. I used silver Spellbinders' Glimmer Foil and a Simon Says Stamp hot foil die called "Love" for the sentiment. I foiled the sentiment using a scrap piece of Spellbinders' Indigo cardstock for the silver foiled sentiment and it always surprises me when it foils perfectly the first time. I fussy cut around the foiled sentiment a put thin foam squares on the back to adhere it to the card front panel. For that final touch, I added a sprinkling of Dress My Craft "Heart Droplets" around the sentiment and that wraps another card up for the 2024 Valentine card making season.


I appreciate you checking out my blog post, until next time... Happy Making!

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