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Monday, June 15, 2026

Card Making With Fresh Summer Vibes {Simon Says Stamp Always There Collection}

Today's cards are bursting with fresh summer vibes. The Gorgeous Hydrangea Embossing Folder and Strawberry Pint die set are part of Simon Says Stamp's Always There collection. Let's take a look at two cards showcasing these sweet strawberries and elegant hydrangea blooms.

This blog post contains affiliate links. When you shop through my links, I receive compensation at no cost to you. Thank you from the bottom of my crafty heart!

Today's first card features the Strawberry Pint dies. This set is the perfect mix of detailed. . . without being too fussy and time consuming. It won't take long at all to die-cut a whole batch of summer berries. I cut the berries and leaves from some scraps of watercolor paper that I had previously covered with ink and watercolor. They had great variations of color and blended shades that added a lot of depth and character to the berries and greenery. (Inking or painting colorful sheets to save for later is a great activity when your card making mojo takes a nose dive!)

I based the color palette of this pink and green cutie on my childhood bedroom. I had fabulous dressers that my mom painted green, with pink drawers in almost these exact shades. They were the best!

Next up, a sweet and simple card with embossing as the star of the summer show! Lightly sanding the embossed texture on white core cardstock really makes this hydrangea come to life. You can also get it with a coordinating stencil to add your own colorful shading and detail to this gorgeous image.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope your summer is filled with warmth and sweetness and crafty goodness all season long! Be sure to head on over to Simon Says Stamp and see all their latest and greatest products and inspiration!

Shop the Supplies on Today's Cards:

Strawberry Pint dies

Gorgeous Hydrangea embossing folder

(or get it bundled with a coordinating stencil)

Cool Birthday stamp set (for the birthday sentiment)

Bereavement Thank Yous stamp set

Spellbinders ColorWheel Cardstock

Platinum 6 die-cutting machine

Spellbinders Playful Stitched Panels dies

Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue

Spellbinders 4-inch detail scissors

Did you love today's cards? You might like this post too!

5 Ways to Use Paper Strips for Card Making

Monday, June 8, 2026

Sending Hugs {Simon Hurley for Spellbinders}

It's impossible not to smile at these adorable die-cut animals, from Simon Hurley and Spellbinders. The Sending Hugs collection includes a dog, cat, and bear that you can customize in a variety of ways, depending on the colors you choose! I loved creating these cards for Spellbinders and I hope they brighten your day!

This blog post contains affiliate links. When you shop through my links, I receive compensation at no cost to you. Thank you from the bottom of my crafty heart!

I love all the fun detail items included with each of these die sets, like the party hat, the gift box, the envelopes and the fancy drinks - so cute! I also love the simple die-cut sentiments. Not in the mood to stamp? No stamping necessary - in fact, although I did some stenciling and inking on some of these cards, I didn't use a single stamp!

The Birthday Bear set is particularly versatile because you can create a brown bear or a panda! So cute!

Another product in this collection is the Puffy Hearts 3D Embossing Folder and coordinating stencil. This is such a versatile little bundle because the two products can be used together, or each independently, as you'll see on today's cards. In the Congrats Cat card below, I used just the stencil set but in the Darling Dog card I combined the embossing folder and the stencils.

There are so many more ways to play with this collection but I hope you've enjoyed today's inspiration from Spellbinders and Simon Hurley. I sure loved creating these cards for you! You can find this collection on the Spellbinders website, as well as many other paper crafting stores. Happy crafting! xoxo

Shop the Supplies on Today's Cards:

Birthday Bear die set

Congrats Cat die set

Darling Dog die set

Puffy Hearts 3D Folder and Stencil Bundle

at Simon Says Stamp

at Scrapbook.com

Spellbinders ColorWheel cardstock

at Simon Says Stamp

at Scrapbook.com

Platinum 6 die-cutting machine

at Simon Says Stamp

at Scrapbook.com

Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue

at Simon Says Stamp

at Scrapbook.com

Spellbinders Large Blending Brushes

at Simon Says Stamp

at Scrapbook.com

Thursday, March 26, 2026

Four {Clean and Simple} Floral Card Ideas with No Coloring

Intricate floral stamps are gorgeous for card making, but even if detailed coloring isn't your favorite - you will make super simple and stunning cards using heat embossing, and beautiful shades of cardstock. Today's cards are part of an elegant four-card set that I created using the Wild Rose stamp set, from Simon Says Stamp.

This blog post contains affiliate links. When you shop through my links, I receive compensation at no cost to you. Thank you from the bottom of my crafty heart!

Today's blog post is short and simple, because these cards are pretty self-explanatory. Each of today's four cards features simple heat embossing. I chose a few colors of cardstock and stuck to the same basic style, so these cards could be gifted together as a coordinating set, or used individually.

If you try out this idea, remember that white embossing will show up more boldly on darker colors of cardstock (although subtle is lovely too, as you'll see on the pale pink card.) This idea would be gorgeous with metallic embossing as well.

The Wild Rose stamp set included everything I needed for the gorgeous florals as well as the sentiments. It's part of the In My Heart collection from Simon Says Stamp, which is filled with sweet sentiments, springtime goodness and stamps/dies you'll use all year long. Check out the entire collection on the Simon website!

Shop the Supplies on Today's Cards:

Wild Rose 6x8 clear stamp set

(or grab it bundled with the coordinating dies!)

Spellbinders ColorWheel cardstock

(I used Coral, Bellini, Orchid, and Rainforest from this collection)

For more coordinating card set ideas, check out this blog post too!

Just Sayin' Card Set

Friday, February 27, 2026

Creative Fun With Background Stamps, Featuring Simon Says Stamp: Beautiful Moments Release

Every so often I love to have some slightly-messy fun on my card making. Even if messy isn't your jam, background stamps are a solid choice for quick card making, whether you want to add a lot of POP, or just a subtle pattern. Today's just slightly-messy cards are part of Simon Says Stamp's latest collection, called Beautiful Moments, and we're celebrating with a two-day blog hop! Today is day one . . .so let's get to it!

This blog post contains affiliate links. When you shop through my links, I receive compensation at no cost to you. Thank you from the bottom of my crafty heart!

Have you ever used a gel printing plate? The beautiful mystery of paints and inks on a gel plate is that you never know what you'll end up with.

You can start simply by rolling out some paint onto the plate with a brayer, and then press your background stamp into it. (I used the adorable new Pinwheel Party stamp.) My biggest two-part tip for working with the gel press is: Don't panic and don't clean your plate too soon! The first impression may not look great but stick with it. As you build up layers on the gel plate and cardstock you'll get some interesting textures and colors blending.

For the second card (with pink sentiment) I used Distress Oxide inks, tapping them directly onto the plate, and then stamping into it. I pressed a piece of watercolor paper down to pick up all that color and texture. It created a more subtle pattern but I love it!

Another tip: After you've made that interesting background, stamp larger sentiments onto vellum so all that awesome color and pattern will still remain the focal point.

Next, I set aside the gel press and pulled out my heat embossing supplies. I stamped and embossed the Pinwheel Party stamp onto watercolor paper, and then added puddles of watercolor paints on top. The white embossing resists the watercolor and really makes the pattern pop. Again - this is play. You never know exactly how it will come together until you mess around and try it. My biggest tip for this idea, is to use colors that will blend nicely into each other - otherwise you'll have a muddy mess.

Thanks so much for stopping by today for day one of Simon Says Stamp's two-day blog hop! One lucky commenter from each stop will win a $25 coupon to SSS, so be sure to leave comments along the way! (Winners will be announced on the Simon blog, on March 4.)