The Winner Is...

 Cheryl L! Cheryl won the three Simon Says inks. Cheryl's comment was on the blog and said:

"No crafty gift, but got gift cards to my 2 favorite places...Starbucks and Aldi!!"

Now, I'm all for Starbucks, but must admit I'm not a fan of Aldi, simply because the landlord of our Barnes & Noble wouldn't renew its lease in favor of Aldi and now we have to drive a half hour to get to the Beavercreek Barnes & Noble. My husband and I fake spit every time we pass the old, more convenient location. Stupid Aldi. As Erasmus said, "When I have a little money, I buy books. If any is left, I buy food and clothes."

But I don't hold the landlord's decision against Cheryl, who's a long-time and loyal reader of Simplicity, and am so happy to send her the ink! Cheryl, please send me your snail mail address at susanraihala at roadrunner dot com, and I'll get the inks out to you early this week!

This week's cards were both inspired by THIS PIN by Helga Hopen. Her card design is so perfect that my versions are pretty much copies with different images and colors.

To make the colors coordinate, I used an old Hero Arts red rubber shadow stamp to make a green square that was the same color as the branch (also Hero, but from a clear set). The embossing folder is new, but the sentiment is old, old, old...at least 15 years ago from Papertrey. 

Now, I really liked the above card for a masculine birthday, but decided I wanted to try for more color and pop in the design. So I added the cardinal from the same Hero Arts clear set, colored and masked it, and stamped the branch behind it. I stippled on a bit of lighter green ink to complete the focal point and used a newer Papertrey sentiment to complete the effect.

I can see myself playing around more with this gorgeous layout! Thanks, Helga, for the inspiration!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love, 

Susan