Another Wednesday challenge... I'd like to try Monday challenges, but for some reason Monday is not a good day for me!! This card is entered in Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge and was very simple to do with Memory Box dies.
It is an inlay card, and a simple way to do an inlay is to die cut the pieces more than once to get the colors you want. Here's the card and the directions are below with links to the products used.

I used a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and blended Distress Oxide ink on one end in Peeled Paint in a spot large enough to cut out the entire heart die. The die is the Vernay Heart from Memory Box. Then I blended another spot large enough for the flowers on the other end of the cardstock with Wilted Violet Distress Oxide.

With a piece of white cardstock cut to 4" x 5 1/4" I cut the heart out of the top-right corner and removed the entire piece, saving the "background" white pieces. I die cut out the heart on the green end of the cardstock and another from the end with the Wilted Violet.

I separated all the pieces I wanted in green (including the flowers) from the rest of the heart die cut and cut out the purple flowers only from the purple heart.

After adhering the white 4" x 5 1/4" white to a piece of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" of cardstock, I applied glue to the back of the green vines and pressed them into the hole left from the white die cut. Then I pressed the white "background pieces around the vines, and adhered the purple flowers on top of the green ones to give it some dimension.
I was left with the tiny slots in the green "buds" that I thought should be darker so I sponged on some
Forest Moss Distress Oxide onto the ones that were left in the white die cut.
Once all of the pieces were glued down I applied Nuvo Crystal Drops in gloss white to the holes in the flower centers.
For the "hello," I again used Distress Oxide inks in Seedless Preserves, Wilted Violet, and Shaded Lilac to blend a gradient dark to light onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock and cut out the outside of the Big Halo Hello die from Memory Box and then cut out the word with the matching die in white.
Thanks for looking! If you like the card, leave a comment and hopefully I'll be back next week with another challenge card!

Since my yarn has not arrived until tomorrow to knit a shawl for my daughter I've decided to complete two more cards for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, "Make Your Own Backgrounds." Since these have similar backgrounds, I'll describe making the backgrounds first and then describe the individual cards.

This card uses Nuvo Glimmer Paste spread over a pink cardstock in Pink Opal and Amethyst Purple. The stencil used is from Simon Says Stamp and is the Star Medalion stencil. I used this same stencil on both of the cards.

The bottom card uses the paste in Peridot Green and Blue Topaz glimmer paste over a mint-green cardstock.

On the pink card, I used the MISTI stamp tool to stamp AlteNew's Ornamental Flower and leaves using AlteNew's Crisp Dye inks in Soft Lilac, Lavender Fields, Deep Iris, and Midnight Violet. I used Stampin' Up's Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie, and Tangerine Tango for the inside of the flower, and Lemon Lime Twist, Tranquil Tide, and Mossy Meadow for the leaves. I cut the flower and leaves out with the matching die set from AlteNew, and adhered the leaves flat on the card and added foam to the back of the flower to add dimension.
I cut the "hello" from black cardstock from Lawn Fawn's Magic Color Slider die set and to add interest to the edge of the white card base, I used Lawn Fawn's Outside/In Stitched Rectangle die and a silicon embossing mat in my Big Shot to emboss the card edges with the stitching and line.

Below, I used the same Lawn Fawn's Outside/In Stitched Rectangle die to cut a piece of Island Indigo cardstock for the front of the card, adhered it to a white card base. I stamped the Happy onto X-Press white cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black ink as I was coloring them in with Copics. The stamps are from the Simon Says Stamp Stained Glass Love set and then I used the matching dies to cut them out. I adhered the top, blue one flat to the card and added foam tape to the back of the green one for dimension. I used Hero Arts white embossing powder to emboss "BIRTHDAY" on black cardstock which was from the same Stained Glass Love set.

Thank you for looking and if you enjoyed these cards, leave a comment as I do read them!

Yay! A "snow day" in NE PA, which gives me a chance to stay home from school and finish the card I made for the newest Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge! This card is for the Make Your Own Background challenge and I've been playing with different watercolor backgrounds this week. This background is on watercolor paper made by dropping Dr. Ph. Martin's Hydrus watercolors in tiny drops onto the paper and then spritzing it with water and letting the colors bleed together. I used two colors for this: Gamboge and Quinacridone Magenta.

I stamped the image from Simon Says Stamp Bouquet of Thanks, on Bristol smooth cardstock and colored it with Faber-Castel Polychromos pencils. I just got these and wanted to try them out and compare them with Prismacolor pencils, which you know I just love. These are a little firmer leads and don't break as easily, and I haven't decided which I like better yet, but will let you know after I try them some more.

I had to cut out the flowers as when I ordered the stamp set, the matching die was out of stock, sadly, but hopefully it is on it's way now!!

I cut out a large stitched rectangle from Old Olive paper with Lawn Fawn's Outside In Stitched rectangle die and adhered the watercolor background onto the center of that. I really like the Outside/In stitched dies as it makes your supplies go further as you can use both pieces!
I cut out the "hello" from black cardstock that I put onto some Stick-It adhesive sheets with Lawn Fawn's Magic Color Slider.

Finally, I added a few pearls and decided to give the flowers a sheen with a Wink of Stella pen.

This card I made for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. The Tiger-lily stamp from Penny Black and I embossed it in white on white cardstock and used Distress ink with a blending tool to color in the background in Rusty Hinge and the stem and leaf with Crushed Olive and Peeled Paint. I took a watercolor brush with plain water and took some of the Distress ink off the petals to give it highlights.
After the flower was finished, I  distressed the background with Walnut Stain Distress ink and then watered down some Walnut stain Distress ink and splattered it with a paint brush.
I cut the image out with an Antique Frame die from Penny Black and adhered this to a carmel cardstock and then with dimension adhered this to a peach cardstock and finally onto the front of a vanilla card base. I hope you like it!

Again, since it will soon be Valentine's Day I've been working on cards for friends. Also, since Simon Says Stamp is having this "lovely challenge," I just finished another for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge, "It Must Be Love."
Here's the card:

For this card I had some hearts in Stampin' Up's Mellon Mambo paper that I had left over from another project and decided to use some of Nuvo's Pink Opal Glimmer Paste with Simon Says Stamp Folk Dance stencil. 

The white cardstock was cut with Simon Says Stamp Twisted Stitch border die and adhered to a piece of pink cardstock, the heart on top as shown. I cut the "love" background from black cardstock using Simon Says Stamp's love die, and then used the matching word die that I cut from white cardstock. (This is my favorite word die!) Then I embossed the saying in Hero Arts white embossing powder on black cardstock. This saying is from Simon Says Stamp's Stained Glass Love stamp set. I punched it out with Stampin' Up's word window punch. 

Finally, I cut out some tiny hearts in different shades of pink with Memory Box's Candy Hearts die and after adhering them to the card, added Ranger's Glossy Accents. Thanks for looking!!

This card is a crd that is entered in the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, "It Must Be Love."
I started with a piece of Neenah white cardstock and stamped the Center Cut Heart from Simon Says Stamp in Hero Arts Intense Black ink. Then I colored it with Copic markers (3 shades of each color, listed below.) I stamped this with the center heart out of the stamp to leave it white. I used another piece of Neenah white to cut the two bottom white corners with the Twisted Stitch Borders die set from Simon Says Stamp. I embossed the "YOU TO PIECES," from Simon Says Stamp Love set in white using Versamark ink and Hero Arts white embossing powder. I used the "Love" die from Simon Says Stamp and cut out three layers of Hero Arts frosted pink cardstock and layered them together, and used the same pink cardstock to frame the card. Finally, everything went together on a top-folding white note card. Thanks for looking!!

Copic Colors Used:
BG02/BG15/BG09
RV21/RV25/RV29
YG21/YG23/YG25
Y11/Y12/Y19
YR12/YR16/YR18