Witch, Please | Simon Says Stamp + CZ Design

Hi friends!  Today I’m getting a start on this year’s Halloween cards and also joining along on this week’s Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge.  

The supplies used were:

Simon Says Stamp + CZ Design - “Witch, Please” Stamp Set

Simon Says Stamp - So Very Black Cardstock

Ranger / Tim Holtz Distress Ink – Lost Shadow & Pumice Stone

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Ink – Flannel

Simon Says Stamp Clear Embossing and Watermark Ink

Waffle Flower - A6 Piercing Layers Dies

Waffle Flower - A6 Additional Piercing Layers Dies

Plate 52 - Dark Boundaries Rubber Stamp Set (moon & clouds)

Altenew - Obsidian Pigment Ink

WOW!  Clear Gloss Super Fine Embossing Powder

Sharpie – Earthtone Yellow Creative Maker (moon)

WOW! Heat Embossing Tool

Altenew 1” Instant Dimension Foam Tape

Picket Fence Studio – Moon Shade Gems

Misti Original Stamp Positioning Tool

Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

I started today’s card by die cutting a piece of Simon Says Stamp’s “So Very Black” cardstock using the largest die in the Waffle Flower A6 Piercing Layers die set and also diecut a piece of white cardstock using the largest die in the Waffle Flower A6 Additional Piercing Layers dies.   These will serve as my card front and matting layer.   

Using the Plate 52 red rubber stamp of a cloud and moon called “Dark Boundaries”, I inked up the stamp with Simon Says Stamp’s “Flannel” ink and stamped it in three locations across the top of the card front.  Each time, I first stamped a layer of SSS Flannel ink, cleaned the stamp, and stamped a layer of Simon Says Stamp Clear embossing ink then covered the images with Wow! Clear Gloss embossing powder and heat set it with my heat tool.

I used Tim Holtz’s Lost Shadow and Pumice Stone Distress Inks and blended color to the top of the card front making sure to only lightly apply the inks as I got to the middle of the card front.  After I was happy with that step, I used a Sharpie Creative Marker – a yellow from the Earthtone set – and colored in the moon.

I placed the card front panel into my Misti stamp positioner and stamped the smaller witch on a broom and the “Witch, Please” images onto my card front using Altenew’s Obsidian Pigment Ink.  Once the inks dried, I positioned several Picket Fence Studio “Moon Shade” gems across the lower portion of the card front and glued them into place.

I added Altenew 1” foam tape to the back of the stamped card front and adhered it to the black cardstock panel and then adhered those to panels to the front of a top folding A6 card base.

That completes today’s card!  Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this Halloween in July card and found inspiration for some of your own card making projects! 

Until next time… happy making!

Happy Birthday Bellany! | Birthday 2025

It's soon-to-be our baby girl Bella's 7th birthday and to help show her how much we love her and how much she means to us, I created a cute mermaid themed card. I'll be using two main products - the mermaid stamp from Trinity Stamps and the birthday coverplate from Simon Says Stamp. Let's get started!

I started the card project by stamping out the mermaid character from the Trinity Stamps "Mermazing" stamp set onto Copic Xpress-It white cardstock using Lawn Fawn's Jet Black ink pad. I allowed the ink to fully dry before coloring since I chose to add color using Copic markers. For coloring the mermaid, these are the marker colors I chose:

Skin: E04, E11, E33

Tail, Shell in Hair, Swim Top: BG49, BG57, BG23

Hair: E29, E37, E33

After the mermaid was colored, I added shimmer to the turquoise parts with the Nuvo Aqua Shimmer Glitter Gloss pen, white highlights using a Sakura white 08 Gelly Roll pen, and colored her eyes using a Sakura Black Glaze pen. You can choose to omit these steps if you wanted to, but I thought it added a little livliness to the mermaid. Once the shimmer and white highlights were dry, I fussy cut the image, then used a black marker to color the cut edges of the mermaid.

Next, I cut a piece of Tonic Mermaid Shimmer Ombre Glitter Cardstock to measure 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" which will serve as the background for my card front. I also cut a piece of white cardstock to measure 4-1/2" x 5-3/4" and ink blended three Ranger/Tim Holtz Distress Oxide inks from one end of the panel to the next using these colors: Peacock Feathers, Crackling Campfire, and Antique Linen. It will be okay that the Crackling Campfire and Peacock Feathers won't necessarily want to blend together - it won't be noticeable in the end. After I ink blended the panel, I allowed the ink to dry back about 50% of the way and took my Antique Linen Oxide ink pad and smeared ink onto my glass mat (to avoid color contamination) and blended the Antique Linen lightly across the entire surface of the panel with my foam blender. This step will help tone down the Crackling Campfire and Peacock Feathers to help it to be more cohesive with the Tonic Mermaid Shimmer Ombre Glitter Cardstock background panel. Once the ink blended panel completely dried, I used the Simon Says Stamp "Happy" cover die and die cut the ink blended panel ensuring the "Y" in Happy was on the same end as the Peacock Feathers inked end of the cardstock panel.

Before beginning the next step, I lined my Tim Holtz Splat Box with a sheet of non-stick parchment paper. Then I discarded the negative pieces of the die cut panel and placed all the outline pieces (including the little inner outline pieces from the A and Ps) onto the parchment paper in the Splat Box. I want these outline pieces to have an element of shine to them, so I thoroughly misted all the outlines with Ranger's Distress Resist Spray, carefully removed them from the Splat Box and placed them onto a clean piece of parchment paper and set them aside to dry.

While the cover die outline was drying, I decided to use a Sakura 10 white Gelly Roll pen and add white highlights here and there on the actual letters that spelled out HAPPY that will be placed back onto the outline of the cover die - again, you can skip this step if you want to.

I die cut a second Happy cover die panel from Brutus Monroe's white "Not Your Mama's 130lb Cardstock" to add some dimension to the ink blended/Resist Spray coated outline and I also stamped the BIRTHDAY! sentiment from the same Simon Says Stamp "Happy" stamp set that coordinates with the cover die onto a scrap piece of the Brutus Monroe"Not Your Mama's 130lb Cardstock" using Gina K Designs "Blue Lagoon" ink and simply trimmed it to size using a paper trimmer.

I added glue to the reverse side of the ink blended cover die panel and adhered it to the 130lb cardstock version and adhered those to the glitter cardstock panel. After that, I glued all the individual letters and the centers of the A and Ps onto the card front in their appropriate locations and placed my Misti on top so that everything would adhere nicely.

I strategically placed thin foam squares to the back of the little mermaid and the birthday sentiment and placed them into the lower right corner of the card front. Lastly, I glued a scattering of five Simon Says Stamp "Opal Gems" around the mermaid and sentiment and adhered the completed card front onto a side folding A2, Concord & 9th "Oceanside" card base.

This was a quick and fun card to make, I hope it'll inspire you to create some mermaid fun for the little one in your life. Thank you for stopping by and happy making!

Happiest Birthday Ever! | Trinity Stamps + Honey Bee Stamps

Happiest Birthday Ever!  |  Trinity Stamps + Honey Bee Stamps

Hi friends!  Today I’ve made a birthday card using the Sarah Renae Clark Color Cube card #030 color scheme.  The stamp and stencil products I used are from Trinity Stamps and Honey Bee Stamps.  It’s definitely a hand delivery card with the amount of Hero Paste I used – but well worth it for the look I achieved.  Let’s get started!  

The supplies used were:

Trinity Stamps “Hey Cupcake” Stamp and Die Set

Honey Bee Stamps “It’s a Party” Stencil Set

Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste

Brutus Monroe Gold Glitter Glaze

Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated Inks:

    Honey

    Field

    Morning

    Dusk

    Peachy

    Terracotta

Simon Says Stamp Intense Black Dye Ink

Copic Alcohol Markers –

    Yellows:  Y04, Y18, Y26

    Blues:  B93, B45, B97

    Peaches:  YR01, YR65, E97

X-Press It Blending Cardstock

Spellbinders Sunkissed Cardstock

My Favorite Things Blue Yonder Cardstock

Pretty Pink Posh “Beach Day Shaker Beads”

Wagner Heat Embossing Tool

Misti Original Stamp Positioning Tool

Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

I started today’s card by cutting a piece of white cardstock that measured 4-1/2” x 5”, a piece of Spellbinders Sunkissed cardstock that measured 5” x 5-1/2”, and a piece of My Favorite Things Blue Yonder cardstock that measured 4-7/8” x 5-3/8” (approximately).  I used tape runner to adhere the yellow and blue panels together.

For the stenciling, I used the white cardstock panel listed in the previous paragraph and used the Honey Bee Stamps “It’s a Party” stencils to create my background.  There are six stencils in this set and I used a blending brush and Simon Says Stamp’s Pawsitively Saturated Inks in the colors: Honey, Field, Morning Peachy, and Terracotta.  After my stenciling was completed, I re-used the Layer 4 stencil (the one with the stars) and placed it back onto the ink blended panel and aligned it with the yellow inking that was already completed and applied a generous layer of Brutus Monroe Gold Glitter Glaze with a palette knife all over the stencil until it was evenly covered, returned the excess back into the jar and immediately cleaned off my work surface, palette knife, and stencil.  I set the background panel aside to dry while I moved on to the next step.

Using my Misti stamp positioner, a piece of X-Press It Blending Cardstock, and Simon Says Stamp Intense Black ink pad, I positioned the two cupcake stamps from the Trinity Stamps ”Hey Cupcake” stamp and die set into the Misti and stamped the images onto the X-Press It cardstock panel.  After cleaning off my stamps, I used my heat tool to dry/set the ink since I was going to be coloring with Copic alcohol markers. 

For the cupcake coloring I used Copic markers Y04, Y18, and Y26 for the icing portion; markers B93, B45, and B97 for the cupcake wrapper; and markers YR01, YR65, and E97 for the small cake portion.  I used the coordinating dies to die cut the images and also cut an extra layer of the icing from heavy white cardstock to make that piece more structurally sound since I will be applying paste to it later and the extra cardstock will help prevent warping as the paste dries.

I used the smaller icing die included in the “Hey Cupcake” stamp/die set and die cut a piece of heavy weight white cardstock to make a stencil for my pasting (which means I only wanted the negative space).  I used temporary tape to adhere this piece of cardstock to the top of my Copic colored icing die cut and carefully applied a thick layer of Hero Arts Glitter Hero Paste over the inked icing (again, using that negative space stencil I made).  I slowly removed the homemade icing stencil from the yellow icing die cut and used my fingertips and a metal piercing tool to sculpt the edges of the Glitter Hero Paste so that the edges were completed covered and to also clear the paste from the black inked shadow areas that were made by the actual stamp.  I did this until the entire die cut was evenly covered with the paste and then added some Pretty Pink Posh “Beach Day Shaker Beads” to random areas in the icing to mimic nonpareils.  I set this portion of the project aside to dry several hours since I didn’t want to smear my paste.

Once the Glitter Hero Paste dried, I used liquid adhesive to adhere the icing die cut to the top of the cupcake die cut.  I used a white gel pen to add some highlighting to random areas of the blue cupcake holder and allowed that a small amount of time to completely dry.  While the gel pen was drying, I used the “Wishing you the happiest Birthday ever!” stamp from the Trinity Stamps “Hey Cupcake” stamp/die set and stamped it onto a piece of white cardstock using Simon Says Stamp Pawsitively Saturated “Dusk” ink then used the coordinating die to die cut it and also an extra one so that I could add dimension to the sentiment.  I adhered the birthday greeting to the blue cupcake holder portion of cupcake using liquid glue and then applied thin foam squares to the back of the cupcake.  Next, I used tape runner to adhere the stenciled card panel to the card front panels, then removed the release paper from the back of the foam tape squares on the cupcake and adhered it to the card front and that completed today’s card. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed the birthday card and found inspiration for some of your cardmaking projects!  Until next time… happy making!