Beautiful Birthday | Pinkfresh Studio

Hi crafty friends!  Today I am sharing a card featuring some fabulous products from Pinkfresh Studio – both recently released and a tad older.  My beautiful niece gifted me with a pad of Strathmore Toned Tan Paper during Christmas and that paper was the inspiration for what ended up being a delightful tone-on-tone birthday card.

The supplies used:

Pinkfresh Studio – Amazing Things Stamps/Stencils/Dies

     Pinkfresh Studio –Bloomscape Stamp/Stencils

     Pinkfresh Studio – On My Mind Stamp Stamps/Dies

     Spellbinders – Precision Layering A2 A Die Set

     Pinkfresh Studio – Nested Elongated Ovals Dies

     Kraft Cardstock

     Tonic – Craft Perfect Pearled Gold Vellum Paper

     Strathmore Toned Tan Sketch Paper

Spellbinders - Cinnamon Color Wheel Cardstock

     Anna Griffin – Champagne Matte Foil Cardstock

     Simon Says Stamp – Earl Ink Pad

     Simon Says Stamp – Charcoal Ink Pad

     Simon Says Stamp – Nutmeg Ink Pad

     Simon Says Stamp – Paprika Ink Pad

     Simon Says Stamp – Allspice Ink Pad

     Altenew Mini Blending Brushes

     Ranger – Anti-Static Pouch

     Ranger/Tim Holtz – Distress Embossing Ink

     Ranger – Princess Gold Embossing Powder

     Scor-Tape Double Sided Adhesive

     Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue

     WOW! Dual Speed Heat Tool

     My Sweet Petunia - MISTI Stamping Tool

     Anna Griffin Empress Die Cutting Machine

Creating the Background Panel

I cut a piece of Strathmore Toned Tan paper to measure 4.5” x 5.75” and used Simon Says Stamp Earl ink to stamp Pinkfresh Studio’s Bloomscape cling floral stamp onto the Toned Tan paper with the assistance of my MISTI stamping tool.  I chose to create a tone-on-tone floral background colorway, so I started my ink blending utilizing the coordinating Pinkfresh Studio Bloomscape stencils and some ink pads from Simon Says Stamp in the colors:  Earl, Charcoal, Nutmeg, Paprika, and Allspice.  Using Altenew’s Mini Blending Brushes, I added greys to the leaf-related stencil areas and the brown-tones were blended into the floral aspects of the stencils except for the flower centers and I added Lisa Horton’s Night Sky Cloud 9 ink to those.  Once the gold pigment ink dried, I used the Spellbinders Precision Layering A2 A dies to die cut the inky, floral background panel using the second to largest die in the set and die cut Anna Griffin Champagne Matte Foil Cardstock using the largest die in the set.  I adhered the floral background panel to the center of the champagne metallic cardstock using strips of Scor-Tape.

Creating the Focal Point

Using the Pinkfresh Studio Amazing Things stamp set, I placed the large floral stamp and a piece of the Strathmore Toned Tan paper into my MISTI tool, prepped the paper with Ranger’s Anti-Static Pouch to help alleviate stray pieces of embossing powder sticking where I didn’t want them to, and stamped the image onto the Toned Tan paper using Ranger Ink/Tim Holtz’s Distress Embossing Ink.  Once stamped, I applied a coating of Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder to the inked image, tapped off the excess, and melted the embossing powder using my WOW! Dual Speed Heat Tool. 

For ink blending the image, I used the Pinkfresh Studio Amazing Things stencil set.  For the leaves (stencils 1 and 2), I chose Simon Says Stamp’s Earl and Charcoal inks to add color and shading.  There are three stencils for the flowers, so I used Simon Says Stamp’s Nutmeg, Paprika, and Allspice inks for the floral aspects of the image.  I ink blended the Nutmeg on stencil 3, Paprika on stencil 4, and Allspice on stencil 5. 

Once the image was completely colored, I used the Pinkfresh Studio Amazing Things die to die cut the flower image and die cut plain, kraft cardstock three additional times to add dimension to the focal image.  After die cutting, I used Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue to adhere the inked image and two of the plain, kraft cardstock layers together.  Using the Pinkfresh Studio Nested Elongated Ovals die set, I die cut a piece of Tonic Craft Perfect Pearled Gold vellum using the largest die in the set.  I glued the floral stacked layers to the center of the vellum oval and glued the final/third plain, kraft cardstock image that matches the floral image to the back side of the vellum.  This will add some lift and separation for the floral image from the floral background.

Creating the Sentiment

For the sentiment, I used the Pinkfresh Studio On My Mind clear stamp and die set and chose the “Wishing You a Beautiful Birthday” greeting.  I placed the sentiment stamp and a piece of Spellbinders Cinnamon cardstock into the MISTI tool, prepped the cardstock with Ranger’s Anti-Static Pouch and stamped the image onto the cardstock using Ranger Ink/Tim Holtz’s Distress Embossing Ink.  Once stamped, I applied a coating of Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder to the inked sentiment, tapped off the excess, and melted the embossing powder using my WOW! Dual Speed Heat Tool.

Assembling the Card Front

To add the focal point the card front, I added liquid glue to the back side of the bottom layer of kraft cardstock that was previously glued to the vellum layer of the focal point and carefully positioned in onto the center of the card.  Once the glue dried, I added a few pieces of scrap cardstock the two outer edges of the sentiment to give them stability and glued the sentiment to the bottom center of the card front.  Lastly, I adhered the completed card front to a side-folding, A2 size, kraft cardstock card base.

Thank you for stopping by and checking out today’s blog post, I really appreciate it.  Until next time, happy crafting!

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!