Monday, March 31, 2025

Floral Delight "Hello" - FMS #679

 

Hi and welcome back to a new week and a new card challenge.  This week I am using the FMS #679 for my "hello" greeting card.  It's always nice to have some cards on hand that you can send to friends for no other reason than to touch base, let them know you're thinking of them and that you care.  


FMS #679
Here is my card:
One of my best purchases this year has been the Floral Delight suite.  I am totally in love with the blend of yellows, greens and blue in both the DSP and the Floral and Gingham Vellum paper pack.  


Another Online Exclusive bundle used in this card is the Everyday Arches stamp and die bundle. I'm in love with the die cuts and how beautifully they next together to create great focal frameworks. The stitching around the arches adds such a polished look.   



Instead of using cardstock for the inside coloured matte on this card, I cut an additional piece of the green Floral Delight dsp and then layered on a smaller piece of Whisper White for the messaging area. I like using dsp for this layer as it cuts down on the mailing weight and it's a great way to use up those papers that you might not showcase in your cardmaking.  

Instead of adding a sentiment to the inside of this card I kept it simple by only adding a single flower in the bottom right corner.  Tip:  A lot of times there will be half images on the outside of the dsp paper that can be fussy cut and added right to the edge of your projects.  In this case there was only a half image of the flower and it fitted perfectly into the corner of the matter.  I like cutting out these types of images because they can be used as fillers by tucking them into an arrangement or are perfect for jazzing up a corner.

Supplies:
Stamps and Dies:
  • Everyday Arches #164623 
  • Everyday Arches Dies #164628\
  • Banner Framelit Dies (R) 132173 six 4 7/8 x 2 3/4 (trimmed down to 4 3/8"
The banner was cut from one of the designs in the Floral and Gingham Vellum paper.  To hide the band of yellow DSP going across the center of the card, and to make the design on the vellum pop out a bit more, I cut a second banner from Whisper White and adhered it to the vellum one with mini glue dots.  This really made the beautiful floral design on the Vellum come to life and gave it sort of a dreamy background for the arches. 

Cardstock:
  • Whisper White card base 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" scored at 4 1/4" for card base.  
  • Whisper White 3 3/4" x 5" for inside matte, 5 1/4 x 4 for banner backing, 3 1/2" x2" for smaller arch on front matte.
  • Lemon Lolly 4" x 5 1/4" matte for card front 
  • Pool Party for 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" for larger arch on front. 
  • Floral Delight DSP:
    • 2 pieces 5" x 3 3/4" for front and inside mattes (solid green pattern)
    • 1/2" x 4" strip of patterned paper for front matte
    • 5" x 3" piece Floral and Gingham Vellum #164713 - for banner 
    • Small flowers fussy cut for decoration on Arch and inside card
Floral and Gingham Vellum #164713

Floral Delight DSP #164700
Ink:
  • Old Olive for the "hello" sentiment from Everyday Arches stamp set. 
Accessories:
  • Dimensionals large and mini
  • Adhesive Backed Shiny Sequins (green) #163484
The sprays of yellow flowers which remind me of forsythia which is currently in bloom here in Abbotsford, were fussy cut from the DSP and blued in the corners of the white arch.  To add some dimension I cut the yellow flowers from a different DSP in the package and popped them up on Dimensionals.  The shiny sequins gave a bit of sparkle as the finishing touch on this card.  


Well that's it for my "hello" card.  I love the fresh spring look achieved by layering the beautiful Floral Delight papers.  What do you think? Would this card brighten your day and make you smile?  

Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Click here to visit my Online 24/7 Shop 



Sunday, March 30, 2025

Friendly Seagulls Birthday Card - AHSC#622

March  is definitely going out like a lion with lots of wind and rain.  On Thursday night we had a big thunder and lightening storm in the wee hours.  Quite frightening, however woke up to sunshine and a nicer day on Friday.  How the days in the week fly by. 

Speaking of things flying by, it's time once again for my entry into the latest Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.   

     

Here's My Card:

Sketches are always up for interpretation, so when I looked at this one, the strips reminded me of nautical pilings.  I could envision the gulls from the Friendly Seagulls set perched on top of the piling arguing over a chip.  That vision led me to create this birthday card.   


I debated about spritzing or splattering the background but decided I liked the look of the card without a lot of other things going on.  Between the glimmering gems and the sandy pebbles I figured that was enough design elements.  



Supplies:



Stamps and Dies:
  • Friendly Seagulls #164961
  • Under the Moon #163531 - water 
  • Fun in the Sun - PP July 2023 for sun and "sending an ocean of love"
  • Sending Love Dies #162879 - logs
  • Textured Note Dies #165555 - sentiment basic white stitched strip
Cardstock:
  • Basic White 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" scored at 4 1/4" for base
  • Scraps of Basic White for seagulls and sentiment strip
  • Scraps of Crumb Cake for logs
  • 4" x 5 1/4" Summer Splash
  • 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" Marigold (R)
Ink:
  • Momento Black Ink for Seagulls
  • Crumb Cake
  • Summer Splash
  • Mango Melody
  • Pool Party
Accessories:
  • Dimensionals
  • Navy and Crumb Cake Butcher Cord for logs
  • 2024-2026 Incolour Shimmer Gems 
Thanks for dropping by and checking out my challenge card.  Hope you got a chuckle out of those seagulls.  They make me smile.  

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT 
Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Dodge Charger Masculine Birthday - FMS#678

This sketch at Freshly Made Sketches is open to interpretation as you can see from the Design Team's samples.  

The moment I looked at this sketch I visualized using the splatters for a masculine birthday card and having the splatter mark as a backdrop for a vehicle. 

Click here for details and to see the Design Team Submissions 

Here's My Card: 
Our nephew Tom's birthday falls on April 1st so it was time to get busy and make him a special card. Like me he's always been a big fan of hot American cars like the Dodge Charger series so I decided to use this sketch and Stampin' Ups! "Geared Up Garage" for the focal for his card.  

My dream car back in the 70's was a yellow Dodge Charger Hellcat like this one in the photo. 
 
Later models had more black on the roof and hood details but for my card I chose to keep the colouring fairly simple.  



Supplies:
Stamp & Die Set:
  • Geared Up Garage (R) #148590 stamp set "car and sentiments"
  • Garage Gear Dies (R) #148521
  • Perennial Birthday (R)  "Happy Birthday" inside sentiment 


Cardstock:
  • Card base 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Whisper White scored at 4 1/4", matte 3 3/4" x 5", inside matte 3 7/8" x 5" 
  • Pebbled Path matte 5 1/4" x 4"
  • Crushed Curry matte 5 1/8" x 3 7/8", inside matte 4" x 5 1/4" 
Ink:
  • Momento Black ink for car and sentiment
  • Mango Melody light and dark for car
  • Crushed Curry for splotches 
  • Pebbled Path for splotches and car details 
  • Color Lifter 
Accessories:
  • Crushed Curry and Pebbled Path Flat Gems 
  • Cut and Emboss Machine 
  • Dimensionals 

Thanks for dropping by for a visit and checking out this card and I hope you liked my interpretation of the sketch.  Come again! 

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT 
Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006 


Seaside Adventures with AHSC #621

Update:  Top Three Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #621

A big thanks to Brandi for entering my card into the AHSC #621 challenge when I was late getting it entered.  Also a big shout out to the Admin team for choosing my card along with Brigits Easter Eggs and Deb Horst's Blueberry design as Top Three Badge Winners for this Challenge.  You made my day!  So appreciated! I loved all the card entries!  


Penny Hanuszak
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot !

This week's sketch at Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge was designed by Michelle. This sketch is a throwback to when this challenge blog first started. Over the coming months they will be doing a look back at those old sketches on the third Monday of each month and will post a new challenge based on one from that time period.  Here is the latest challenge: 

Here's My Card: 

The circles on this sketch had me thinking of bubbles and fish so I dug through my stash until I found some cute fish stamps and went to work on a summery seaside card. I hope you like my interpretation of the sketch.  

Supplies:

Stamp Set and Dies:

  • Seaside Shore #141625 (R)
  • Shore Thing (R)
  • Friendly Seagulls #164961

Cardstock and DSP:

  • Card Base in Whisper White 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" scored at 4 1/4" and 
  • 5" x 3 3/4" for front matte, scraps of white for fish and seaweed.
  • Petunia Pop Matte 5 3/8" x 4 1/8"
  • Summer Splash 5 1/4" x 4" 

Ink:

  • Summer Splash for sentiment
  • Pool Party for water and bubbles
  • Crumb Cake for Sand
  • Petunia Pop, Orchid Oasis, Peach Pie for large fish
  • Blends for seaweed, small fish and star fish:  Granny Apple Green, Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Just Jade, Mango Melody

Accessories:

  • Scissors for fussy cutting fish
  • Stickles for Sparkle on fish
  • Adhesive and Dimensionals
  • Iridescent Faceted Gems 


If you've ever snorkeled in an area with tropical fish, you've probably been amazed at all the activity below the surface. There are big fish, teeny tiny fish and they all seem to be going in different directions.  I used that concept for creating the scene for this card.  I only had a few stamp sets with seaside images to use for my design. 

The larger fish, bubbles and seaweed were from a retired Stampin' Up! set called Seaside Shore. The cute little crab was from another retired set called Shore Thing. When it came to the small green fish I used a stamp from a very old set that had a school of fish in a square. I wanted them to be individual and look like they were swimming amongst the bigger fish, so I coloured them and then fussy cut each of the images out.  Yikes that was time consuming! I also used Stickles to add some sparkle to these little fishies, the seaweed and two of the larger fish.

Well that's it for this week's post, which was somewhat out of my comfort zone, however was fun to make.  I hope you enjoyed it and will leave me a comment about your snorkeling experiences and the most colourful fish you spotted. Cheers and have a good week.   

Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot

Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006


Friday, March 21, 2025

Textured Notes Top 3 Badge for AHSC #620

 Top 3 Badge Winner for Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge #620:

AHSC #620

I was thrilled to find out that my Textured Notes card in last week's challenge was  one of the top three for sketch challenge #620.  Thank you to the Atlantic Heart Challenge Designers for not only a great sketch challenge, but for choosing my card as one of the three top  badge winners.  Appreciate it! 

Click here to see the original post

I had a good feeling about this sketch right from the start.  A shout out to the other two winners - PJs Projects and Jolanda Johnston.  Make sure you check out their gorgeous cards too.    

Stay tuned for some additional Textured Notes over the coming weeks.  The natural textures in the DSP make it such a wonderful  set to create and play with.  I'm also a big fan of the coordinating stamps which are perfect for layering on the texture and for creating wonderful focal points.  


Happy Stamping!
Penny Tokens Stampin' Spot 
Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006 

Monday, March 17, 2025

Plaid Shirts Masculine Cards

Have you seen the Timeless Plaid 6x 6  designer series paper that's featured on page 25 of the January to April 2025 Mini Catalogue.  It's sold separately or as part of the Storybook Moments Suite.  

These plaid papers are perfect for masculine, seasonal, and all-occasion cards, gift tags, scrapbook pages, and more and there are 48 sheets of patterned paper (4 each of 12 double-sided designs).  The product colours are Basic Beige, Boho Blue, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Lost Lagoon, Misty Moonlight, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Pebbled Path, Pecan Pie, Wild Wheat.


During the month of March I have several guy birthday occasions, and as soon as I saw this plaid paper I wanted to make some shirt birthday cards.  I found a great template on Tonya Denton's So Inking blog that was exactly what I was looking for.  Here are some of the cards I made:




These shirt cards are so easy to make. Here are the supplies I used:

Supplies:

Card Stock:
  • Card base 8 1.2x 11 scored at 4 1/4"  I used very old retired cardstock that matched the plaids for example:
    • Blue card is Close to Cocoa, and Matte is Misty Moonlight, Buttons Close to Cocoa
    • Orange and Wild Wheat Plaid with  Cajun Craze Matt and Groovy Guava base, Buttons Groovy Guava
    • Flirty Flamingo and Crumb Cake Plaid with Early Espresso Matte and Flirty Flamingo base, Buttons Close to Cocoa
    • Lost Lagoon and Old Olive Plaid, Matte is Lost Lagoon, Base and buttons are Old Olive 
  • Basic White scraps for pocket inserts
  • Basic White 4" x 5 1/4" for inside matte layer
Stamps: 
  • Special Moments #158081 (best wishes sentiment)
  • Inside sentiment "wishing you the best birthday ever" retired Stampin Up!
Accessories: 
  • Retired Button Die by Stampin Up
  • Rectangle Stitched Framelit Dies (R) - largest one for Shirt  
  • Stitched Nested Label Dies (R) for pocket and pocket insert 
I made this blue and green plaid shirt with the buttons and collar facing the 
opposite way from the other shirts, just for some variety.  It worked okay. 


Well, that's it for my Plaid Masculine Birthday cards.  I hope you liked them.  If you're interested in casing these cards the instructions are in  Tonya's post.  Hope you enjoyed these.  

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT
Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Sunday, March 16, 2025

Friendly Seagulls FMS#677

I've been playing with the Friendly Seagulls stamp set I got for free during Sale-a-bration last month, and decided to use it for this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge.   Click here to see my first effort with this set, which was a top three winner in the Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge.  What fun!  Here's the sketch:

Click here for Freshly Made Sketches #677

Here's My Card:


I love the new Textured Notes dies that came in my last order so I used them to cut the blue and the white mattes. I added some texture to the Balmy Blue matte by embossing it with the So Swirly embossing folder.

Although the texture is great I don't like large embossing folders like this. They are a pain, taking up too much room in my storage area. I guess the only advantage for me would be getting two mattes with one swipe of the machine.


I always try and finish the insides of my cards even if it's just to add a little stamping.  How about you, do you add sentiments, stamping or other designs to the inside of your card? 

I see some folks just leave the inside blank for writing their message, but I like to add a matte or two.  How about you, do you leave it blank or add mattes? 

Supplies:


Stamps and Dies:

  • Friendly Seagulls #164961 (r)
Cardstock:
  • Basic White card base 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" Scored at 4 1/4"
  • Basic White - three pieces 3" x 1 1/2" for mattes
  • Basic White inside matte 3 3/4" x 5"
  • Boho Blue 4 x 5 1/4" for outside and inside mattes
Ink:
  • Memento Black 
  • Boho Blue
  • Crumb Cake 
  • Blends - Mango Melody, L/D Gray Granite, Poppy Red, SU700
Accessories:
  • Dimensionals
  • So Swirly Embossing Folder for Waves on Boho Blue Matt
  • Textured Notes Dies for mattes
  • Scissors for fussy cutting 
  • Shiny sequins

So that's my card for this week's FMS challenge. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. The three rectangles were easy to work with in creating focal points and I know I'm going to enjoy making more cards using this sketch as well as the Friendly Seagull stamp set. Both are great ideas. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts.  Do you like the seagulls?  Would you send a card like this to a friend or family member?  Can you think of any cute sayings that would go with these images besides the ones I used?  I'm working on that one for my next card with this set.  Have a great week and......

HAPPY STAMPING!
PENNY TOKENS STAMPIN' SPOT


Penny Hanuszak, CDN Stampin' Up! Demo since 2006

Floral Delight "Hello" - FMS #679

  Hi and welcome back to a new week and a new card challenge.  This week I am using the FMS #679 for my "hello" greeting card.  It...