Peony Dreams "Hello" card

This die set by AltENew called PEONY-DREAM-3D-Die is quite a stunner! 

I used an old Darice Embossing Folder with zig zag lines on my card front. 

I cut the flowers from many of the colors to match the CTD #500.   This week they are celebrating their 500th Challenge.  Go over and see what going on over there!  

The card needed a bit of extra flair so I thought maybe an Unbranded Filigree Corner die would be a good fit to add more texture to the card front.  For the sentiment, I decided to use the word "Hello" from the old "Hello you Framelits" die set from Stamping Up (no longer soldby S Up, but it's available on EBAY).  It cuts a very fine lined set of useful words and I find I use it all the time.  

 I did not think it'd be so hard to get the glowers to come together, but it was a bit of a challenge.  I looked online at some of the other cards while I made using these dies and yet, I still messed it up!  He, he, he.  One has to be careful when setting up the flower layers so as to line them up properly (unlike I did).  I accidentally inverted a couple of the pieces and then it layered up wrong, but still pretty!  Luckily these dies are  very forgiving, give them a try!

It took me a while to get the placement of the different elements placed correctly onto the card front.  Play with many different placements and you'll find one that really works.  It is an intuitive thing, you mind's eye will tell you what is the best choice for the placements.

The final result:

Close up view:

That's it for today.  

Hugs,

Nina

Fancy Peacock card for a Fancy Friend

I have a girl friend who is so dear and kind and her Birthday is coming up.  When I think of who she is and what she loves, I think of peacocks.  She has loved those colors and has many of them decorating her home.  She also loves everything glittery, so these papers will be useful.

I decided to make two cards at the same time so I can use the two colors of glitter paper to inlay some of the peacock's feathers in the two different colors.

  I used the large peacock die that I liked so much I bought two of them (by accident).  

Here is the other color:

I decided to place the one onto black card stock for the card base.  Then I started to do the tedious task of inlaying the feathers with the two colors. 

 Ugh, I am not sure what possessed me to do this but it did turn out so nicely.

Then it is time to stamp the sentiment onto card front.

I dug out my old Hero Atrs Layering Flamingo stamp set.

The finished card:

The second edition of same card doesn't yet have a sentiment as I'm not sure who'll be lucky enough  to get it and for what occasion:

Isn't it amazing how the different card base colors really make the two cards so different?? The second one is my favorite as it is really more striking with that blue background.

Thanks for visiting and commenting.

Hugs,

Nina

Another Sweet Birthday Card

I'm thinking of making a card for my dear sweet cousin who moved back to Chicago after coming out to CA with her husband and having three kids born here (who I love to pieces).  I am so upset with her still for going back.  But, both of their families are there, so, I guess it makes sense for them. 

I always try to make some sort of pop-up card for her as the little ones love to open it and play.  

I have this new Cupcake Pop-Up die  that will just be perfect!

These are Unbranded stamps that I got from AliExpress.com and they have great sayings in a nice script font.    

So, I thought Id stamp the interior of the card and also the card front and heat emboss using some Ranger Liquid Platinum Embossing Powder for a more special look. Ignore the VersaFine Black ink pad seen in picture, it made the sentiment look too harsh.  I used Clear VersaMark Embossing ink (or just regular glycerin) instead. Then, an EPIC FAIL!  UGH, I pressed too hard and got a big smudge mark right in the middle of my stamping!  

See?:

So, I thought of just making more smudge markings on the card front and letting that be a design element itself.

The inside of card with the cupcake cutout and the embossed stamping:

Here are some of the dies that I used for the front of the card.  The cupcake dies are more Unbranded ones and the frosting lines are from the Stampin Up! Cupcake Cutouts set.  I used some good ole DCWV glitter paper pads and selected some colors to make the frosting cut-outs.  

Here is the finished card front.  Too messy?? Well, yeah, I think so too, but she does have three kids!  She's OK with messy.  

The inside looks like this all doctored up!

I hope that she likes it (and the kids do too).

Hugs, 

Nina