You Sparkle.

Good morning! I am so happy to be sort of getting back to normal, doing my regular monthly design team posts. Today is the introduction of the March challenge for A Blog Named Hero. This month, our theme is “Bling it Up” and we are collaborating with a wonderful, fairly new company: Studio Katia.

I am just in love with the images in her most recent release… you all know about my love affair with flowers, and those peonies are just so beautiful. I chose to watercolor them (shocker, I know!) and combine them with the beautiful Spice Market background from Hero Arts.

I started by heat embossing the beautifully detailed Spice Market cling background stamp onto my white card base using holographic embossing powder. (How’s that for bling?) I die cut a pretty frame using dies from Studio Katia: Darling Ribbon and Dotted Frame. (That bow just makes me swoon… can’t wait to put that one to use!) I added a sheet of acetate behind my pretty metallic charcoal frame, then turned my attention to the flowers. For the flowers, from SK’s new Together We Bloom set, I simply heat embossed them in white using white embossing powder. I then colored them with my Zig markers in shades of pink with some pretty, monochromatic gray foliage, and fussy cut them out.

I arranged the flowers in a swag in the corner of the frame, using Press ‘n Seal to pick them up to add my adhesive (this technique makes life SO much easier! You should try it!). The exceptionally-appropriate sentiment is from one of the limited edition My Monthly Hero kits, but it was so perfect for the theme that I just couldn’t resist. I stamped it in black onto a thin strip of white card stock, then flagged the end and tucked it into my floral swag. The last step was to fill my shaker with some more bling using one of SK’s Sequin Fusion mixes: Pink Winter. This mix is gorgeous. It has some snowflakes in it, but I just picked those out before closing up my shaker with dimensional adhesive.

And there you have it! This card is positively radiant in the sun. The holographic embossed background is so subtle, but so very sparkly and beautiful, and it provides such a nice complement to the pretty blooms from Studio Katia.

Now it’s your turn! You can hop around to the different members of the A Blog Named Hero design team to get yourself some inspiration, then get your own stamps and dies out to create a bling-ed up project to add to our link up! You have until March 30, 2017 to get your project in to be eligible to win a wonderful prize from Studio Katia! (Be sure to read the challenge rules to make certain you are eligible for the prize. We had several wonderful entries in previous challenges that were ineligible because they didn’t follow all of the rules!) You may enter up to five times, but be sure to follow all of the rules! 🙂

Thank you, Studio Katia, for sponsoring our collaboration this month. Such beautiful stamps, such pretty dies, such gorgeous sequins and sequins mixes. You absolutely should check them out!