The new arches dies are really fun to work with.  Rita Holmes recently made a card with this layout so I decided to make one as well.  

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A very simple card.  I added a strip of Moody Mauve card stock down the front of the card base.  Then I stamped the design from Dainty Delight stamp set and colored the flowers with Moody Mauve and  light green and yellow markers.

 Thank you for coming by today!  (See below for project coming soon.)

This strip of Thoughtful Journey dsp made me think of a beach area so I added the die cut beachy design.  I'll keep this back as a card to use for someone's retirement.  The die cut is from Taylored Expressions.

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The flower is a die cut from a Memory Box design. The butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch and the sentiment is from the Stampin' Up! "Love & Sympathy" stamp set.

Two more cards using this idea.....

These last two were done with a die cut design.

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 I used a scrap of the Thoughtful Journey dsp behind this die cut from Taylored Expresions.  A little deer finished off the scene.

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This was another idea I had from Pinterest while I was making sympathy cards.  The Soft Suede and Early Espresso color combination worked well for the card.

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This piece of the Thoughtful Journey dsp made me think of a body of water so I simply stamped some branches on the bottom half of the paper with an old stamp I have from Stampscapes Inc called "Prickly Branches."  The birds were added along with the little sentiment and the card was done.

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A simple Thank You card.  I took a 3" x 5 1/4" piece of this dsp and added a narrow white mat.  Then I stamped the trees on the horizon and added birds flying over the peaceful scene.  Before adding it to the card base, I used one of the designs from the On the Horizon set to stamp along both the left and right hand side of the base.  It might be hard to see in the picture.

I had the other 3" piece of that sheet and cut it down to make this card and stepped it up by adding the die cut fence and greenery pieces. Note the little "rocks" by the gap in the fence.

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I added a "Twiggy Tree" die cut to the Thoughtful Journey dsp along with a die cut dee which looks like it is getting a sip of water.  

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More Thoughtful Journey dsp on these two cards.  (I'm really trying to use up some of this paper because I bought two packages!)

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I saw the idea for these two cards on Pinterest using the Thoughtful Journey dsp strips.  I didn't have the same die for the black trees, but the unbranded one I have worked great.  I've debated about adding a sentiment on a narrow strip but might leave them as is.

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The die used for this card is from Penny Black..."Framed Flowers". The die cut has a very narrow border which made it more difficult to add adhesive and keep it straight.  Using a heavier card stock would have given it more "body".  

I added texture to the white mat with an embossing folder before die cutting the white piece.  Embossing after die cutting would have damaged the stitched border.  

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The Thoughtful Journey dsp has great pieces to use for cards with silhouette designs.

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 This card uses a square from the Thoughtful Journey dsp.  I added birds from the On the Horizon collection.  The sentiment is from Wonderful Thoughts stamps and dies.  I think this card could also be used if I needed a sympathy card.

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The "Love and Sympathy" stamp set  is one of my favorite sets to use for sympathy cards.  I did this one using Crumb Cake and Navy color combination.  I actually still had some of the little Navy candy dots to embellish the upper corner.  (I wish they still made those little dots since they lay so nice and flat.)

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 I've made this card before but decided to make one again.  I used Crumb Cake ink and card stock.  The mat is Early Espresso.   I stamped the leaves from the retired Forever Fern stamp set.  I'm not sure what stamp set I used for the four "swish" impressions because I have several sets that have those types of stamps.

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 The New Horizon dsp (which is retired) has some great pieces that work well for sympathy cards.  This is a CASE of one I saw on Pinterest.

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Unfortunately I have needed several sympathy cards lately.  Usually I make a card specifically for certain families, but time has been quite busy so I spent a couple of days making up cards to have in my reserve.  This was a very easy card to make.  I stamped the leaves once with Mossy Meadow and then stamped a second time for the lighter shade.  The sentiment was added and three of the little metal butterflies.  The design was matted with Mossy Meadow card stock and then added to a white card base.

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I'm posting these on Tuesday, June 3rd although I intended to have them show on June 1st.  The idea for these came from a post I saw on Pinterest.

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 With this card, I decided to put the rest of the Hello, Irresistable dsp away for the time being.  I don't have much of it left and may either give it away or pitch it.  This is my favorite card I made with the paper in the last few days. 

I saw the design on Pinterest but the layout was reversed.  I put the design to the left side because I discovered a slight flaw in the white card base.  I then I had to adjust the placement of all of the pieces.  I'm really pleased with this card.

Tomorrow is a new month and I think it's time to move on to something new.  Thank you for coming by today!  

 

These two cards used sheets with the same design.  As you can see I reversed the colors the flowers and leaves on each of the cards.  I also added a narrow white strip to the second card. Which  combination do you like better?   I like these cards much better than yesterday's card which was quite dark.  

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This card was made using the directions from Rachel Tessman's video linked in yesteday's post. The dsp is another piece of the 6 x 6  "Hello, Irresistable" dsp.  This format uses a piece that measures 5 1/2" x 6".

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The dsp used on these cards once again is from the "Hello, Irresistable" 6 x 6collection.  The card base is 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 and scored at 4 1/4".  Cuts are made on each side of the front 1 1/4" from the sides an then glued down leaving the front flap free to open.  This first card was made using a light weight white card base and lacked stability so I made as second card below.

Since I was making a second card, I decided to mat the dsp layer on Flirty Flamingo card stock  I like the look much better.  

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Moving on to another retired dsp, this card was made using dsp from the 6 x 6 Hello, Irresistable dsp.  I orderd the pack when it was introduced because of a single card I had seen.  Then when I got it, I had a hard time using some of the designs.  I found this general idea from Rachel Tessman on YouTube here . 

One of the designs is a sheet of flowers that can be die cut with the coordinating dies  The picture actually shows that I gently curled the petals of the top flower which was added with dimensionals.  A second design has a sheet of leaves but I decided to stamp and die cut the ones I used.

Inside

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The final card using some of the Simply Marbleous dsp.......at least for now.   I added a scrap of the piece to a Coastal Cabana card base.  The image from retired SU Flowing Flowers was stamped with a Misti.  I had to stamp it several times because my ink pad was needing reinked.  I was just happy that I still had the retired ink pad and some of the card stock to go with the dsp.

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Instead of using die cuts as the silhouette design, I stamped the image from the Stampin' UP! Fabulous Florets retired stamp set.  I did the stamping with my MISTI because I knew I would have to stamp it several times to get the bold black look I wanted.  Below are two more cards using two different colors. of the dsp.  For all three of these I blended the appropriate ink to show behind the die cut circles.

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Going back to the layout that originally inspired me to make these cards, I used Costal Cabana card stock for the mat and the ink for blending around the area where I would be adding the die cut circle.  The die cut I used for this one is from  Penny Black's Playful II.  The actual die cut is larger, but I cut it apart to use this portion.  (It also has a coordinating stamp.)

Come back tomorrow for three more cards using the same but different idea.  Thank you for coming by today!

The die cut for this card meant using a different layout.  The Blooming Rose design is from Poppy Stamps.

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I still have some of the Stampin' UP! Simply Marbleous 6 x 6 dsp and saw this idea on Pinterest.  The card on the right is actually the first one I made.  I cut a 3" circle from the gray piece of dsp.  The sample I saw had blended the coordinating ink around the area before adding the circle to the card mat.  The samples I saw had all used black silhouette die cuts to add to the circles so I pulled out several from my "collection".

After completing that card, I felt like the dsp got lost so I cut another circle and matted it with the Basic Grey card stock but didn't do any blending with the ink.  I like it much better.

I will be posting more cards using some of the other colors of this dsp and other design added to them.

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Rita Holmes used a new bundle from Stampin' UP! to make a card a couple of weeks ago.  I don't have it and really cannot justify the expense right now so I used supplies that I do have.  This card was made using items from four different sets.  I think I'll use this for someone who is retiring.

In case you would like to see the card Rita made, you can see the video HERE.

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This is a layout that Rita Holms used on one of her Tuesday morning videos.  I used a piece of designer paper that I had purchased at Memory Bound in Ankeny IA several years ago.  It happened to go nicely with the retired Stampin' UP! Blushing Bride card stock.

Inside

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Yesterday I showed a card that I made using a piece from the Dainty Flowers retired dsp.  While looking for some different ideas, I found one that cut it in half.  If I had it to do over, I would have used the dark blue color for the mat on the circle.  

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While I was going through some of my many retired paper collections, I found several pieces that had been cut and ready to use on a card.........and a whole 12 x 12 sheet which provided 6 more pieces like this.  I matted the piece and then added it to a white card base  I used a Memory Box die for the butterfly.  I plan to use the rest of the pieces like this next year for Easter cards.  

I have been making a variety of book marks for the local library so I used the center section of the 12 x 12 piece of dsp to make bookmarks.  I trim the pieces to 2" wide and add them to a piece of coordinating card stock.  I use the SU Delightful Tag Topper punch to form the top.

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On yesterday's cards, I explained how I was having a difficult time getting the placement just right so that the points of the squares on the left were exactly at the edge.  I tried something completely different this time.  I decided to start with the top triangle.  Once again the pieces were off.  If you look close you can see that the bottom triangle was not cut perfectly in half.  I also forgot to emboss the mat first before adding the papers but embossed it afterward.

I'm not one to give up so one last try.  

SUCCESS!  I remembered to emboss the Vanilla mat first.  When I cut the one square in half diagonally, I was extremely careful to make the cut point to point.  Then I started at the top triangle and worked my way down.   All of the points are along the left edge.  Since everything turned out the way I wanted I decided to step it up and add another mat to really set it off.  I don't know if practice makes perfect but it did take me four tries to get it exactly the way I wanted.

If you decide to make something like this, I used 1 1/4" squares.  To start placing the pieces, started with the top triangle by adding it 1" to the right of the left edge and if you triangle has been cut perfectly, everything should flow from there.

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