Hi!! The July release from My Favorite Things just went live, and you can read all about it here. I’m guest designing for this release and it’s a good one. I’ve made plenty of cards that I want to share. This is a loooong blog post, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee before you start reading.

I’m starting with some adorable penguins from Stacey Yacula. I love Stacey’s critters, and these guys are ready to party!

I colored up my penguin with Copics and die cut him with the coordinating die.

There are three new stencil sets in this release, and they come with stencils and the corresponding mask. For this card I used the mask, and ink blended around it with blues, teals and greens.

The Happy Birthday dies are also new. The die set comes with a scripty, handwritten word and a shadow layer. I ink blended some warm colors onto a piece of cardstock and die cut the word itself from that and adhered it onto the shadow layer, which I die cut from white cardstock. Behind the shadow, I have a few more layers of the actual words for some lift off the front.

I white heat embossed part of a sentiment onto black cardstock and added it with a little bit of dimension to the card front, before finishing off the card with some sequins scattered around and a thick coat of Glossy Accents to my balloon.

There’s quite a bit of dimension on this one. Nothing like coordinating dies to help with that and still keep the look clean. Foam tape just isn’t the same, in my opinion.

I may have gone overboard with this many colors for such a tiny image, but boy, is it fun!

Next up is a similar, yet different card. A landscape orientation this time!

I used the watercolor wash free form stencil to ink blend straight onto the cardbase using warm tones.

I used the Happy birthday dies on this card too, but in a different way. I ink blended a piece of cardstock, die cut the shadow layer from that, another shadow layer in white, which I then die cut the words out of. This is fiddly, and it takes time to get all those pieces glued back on, but the result is so worth it.

I adhered my colored, stacked die cut penguin to the bottom right corner and added a white heat embossed sub sentiment on this card too.

I finished off the card by adding a couple of enamel dots in colors that matched. In this photo, the die cut technique I used is a little bit easier to see.

Less colors for this one.

I’m sharing one more card with this set.

I colored and die cut these two cuties, and added another three layers of die cuts behind them for dimension, I wanted them to stand out against the background.

I thought the size of this image would go well with a mini slimline format, and made my card base out of Ripe Raspberry cardstock. I used the same color cardstock for my little white heat embossed sub sentiment.

On the white background, I stamped the new Polka Dot Party Background stamp in colors that matched my image. I like the ombré effect. I mounted the white cardstock onto the card base using foam tape.

I added some sequins to finish off the card, I wanted it to be extra festive and sparkly.

Limited color palette on this one.

Out of all the cards I’ve made with the release so far, this next one might be my favorite.

The Something to Squawk About set is full of different birds and tropical foliage. This toucan was just too good to pass up.

I colored the toucan, the flowers in the stamp set (there are two), the branch and about 20 leaves for this card (there are five different leaves in the set).

I created a frame with the leaves going around the edges of the card, adding additional die cuts behind some of them for a super textured, very dimensional card.

I put the toucan right in the center, cut one of the sentiments in the stamp set in two and stamped it on two lines in bright pink to match his bill and also the flowers.

You can sort of see all the layers here. I think there’s 12 in total in that top left corner where the flower sits. I added three pairs of raindrops, I figured that would be appropriate for a tropical card.

Lots and lots of dimension. That toucan is 10 layers thick. Dimension is life?

Colorful palette because of the bill.

A shaker card up next. I stamped a background using three of the leaves in the stamp set. I used Sour Apple ink on Sour Apple cardstock for a tone on tone look.

I decided to create a shaker card and added a sky in my window, ink blended a few soft clouds and added some diamonds inside.

In this release there’s a new alphabet die set. In a previous release, the same style was released in uppercase letters. This time, there’s lowercase to compliment, and also a set with numbers and punctuation. I die cut the letters to spell hi from four layers of blue card stock, and added another layer on top that I colored with Copics to match the bird.

Turning this into a shaker card was kind of an afterthought after having glued on the frame and the parrot, so I had to get creative, but it worked out in the end.

Definitely a limited color palette for this one.

More parrots. This is a very clean and simple one, but with lots of dimension still, and lots of die cutting.

I colored the birds and the branch, die cut them all and added an additional two layers behind the red and blue bird, 5 more layers behind the branch and 8 more layers behind the teal and blue bird. There’s a lot of dimension here.

Onto the cardbase I stamped the Polka Dot Party Background in an ombré effect, I really liked the look of the first one and thought I’d repeat it with different colors.

I added a strip of Caribbean Sea cardstock toward the right side of the card, and mounted my panel with the birds using foam tape.

I stamped the sentiment using Caribbean Sea ink and decided not to embellish this one at all. It has a ton of dimension, I thought that’d be enough.

Next up is this monkey from the Summer Safari set. I thought he was too cute for words.

I stamped and colored the monkey and the palm tree, die cut them both and added additional layers of die cuts behind each.

I created a card base out of Summer Splash card stock and decided I wanted to do something special with the popsicle image that is in the stamp set. I stamped the popsicle about a million times on a piece of X-Press It blending card and colored each one using the same colors as I used for the popsicle the monkey’s holding.

I die cut a window from the colored popsicle panel to place my monkey in, but decided that my panel was too bright, and decided to mute it down a bit with vellum. The problem with vellum, however, is that glue shows through, so I added a stacked die cut frame on top, made out of three layers of Summer Splash cardstock and one layer of white on top.

I stamped and white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set onto Eiffel Tower cardstock, cut it down to a strip and let it span across the frame.

I added a couple of leaves, some enamel dots for dimension and Glossy Accents to the popsicle, and my card was complete.

Not a lot of colors for this one. 

I wanted to use the crocodile from the stamp set as well, and decided to make a quick, simple birthday tag. Onto a piece of Bristol Smooth cardstock, I ink blended some very soft clouds using Lazy Day ink, before adding a couple of colored card stock pieces to create a scene. I put vellum on top of the Summer Splash cardstock that I used for my water, adhering it in strategic spots and adding a slit for the crocodile to swim out of. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set and added an eyelet and twine to the top of the tag to finish off the tag.

A Pure Innocence girl rounds out today’s little collection of cards.

I colored the image, die cut her and an additional two layers and decided to go for a landscape orientation once again.

I die cut a white panel using a die from the A2 Stitched Rectangles STAX 1 set and ink blended some ground and some clouds behind her using Gravel Gray and Blue Yonder inks.

On the right hand side of the card I added a mini cluster, if you can even call it that. Part of a mini paper doily, some die cuts using the Fishtail Flag Frames die set and a few enamel dots. The patterned paper is from the Party Patters paper pad, and the pink is Ripe Raspberry cardstock. I white heat embossed a sentiment from the stamp set onto that.

I want to thank My Favorite Things for having me on as a guest designer this month, I’ve had a blast with these stamps, dies and stencils!