Archives for August 2022

Colorado Craft Company Free Shipping Days Are Here!

August 17, 2022

Hi there! Just popping in quickly to share a quick little project that I made with some leftovers from my card using the brand new Honey Jar set. When I don’t have a set layout in mind at the beginning of a creative session, I will just heat emboss and color several different images and allow them to arrange themselves on my card front when they’re ready!

I had watercolored the flowers and bee from the Honey Jar and die cut them with the coordinating dies. I also heat embossed a greeting from the Beehive stamp set using more gold embossing powder and fussy cut it.

I die cut a coordinating gold diamond frame using some matte gold foil cardstock and mounted it on a speckled cream card base. I added the watercolored pieces and sentiment with some foam adhesive, finally adding a few matte gold pearls for the finishing touch.

I also wanted to share with you the Colorado Craft Company Free Shipping Days! Today, 8/16 and tomorrow, 8/17, your order will be shipped for free! (Or for $10 flat rate for international orders, a $6.95 savings) No code needed! Click here to shop the new Kris Lauren release.

Well, that’s all for me today! Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a marvelous day!

Pinkfresh Studio August 2022 Stamp, Die, Hot Foil, and Stencil Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

August 15, 2022

Hi there! Today is the day-beautiful new stamps, dies, hot foil plates, and stencils are being released over at Pinkfresh Studio! We have been sharing sneak peeks over on the Pinkfresh Instagram page, and now all of the new goodies are available for purchase HERE. We are sharing lots of inspiration during today’s blog hop (you can find the full list at the bottom), and I have a project with, gasp, *no* watercoloring on it at all, just lots of beautiful ink blending! Let’s get started with the details!

I love keeping my color palette on my cards as consistent as possible throughout each and every die cut, so I began by ink blending two white card panels with Warm Buff, Peach Fuzz, Coral Reef, and Passion Fruit inks to create a sunrise ombré. On one of the panels, I heat embossed the bouquet from the new Happy Dance stamp set using gold embossing powder. I then used the same ink shades to blend the coordinating Happy Dance layering stencils. This double layer of ink blending helps to keep the color palette the same throughout the project. I cut out the finished blended images using the coordinating dies.

On the second blended panel, I used the bottom portion of the new Leafy Background Stencils to create some monochromatic interest behind my blended flowers. I simply used the darkest ink shades (Coral Reef, and Passion Fruit), applying a little extra pressure and more concentrated ink to allow the stenciled images to stand out.

I die cut one of the new Fancy Circles dies from some matte gold cardstock and layered it on my blended and stenciled card base with some foam tape. I tucked the Happy Dance die cut in the golden circle with some more foam adhesive, allowing some of the flowers to peek over the top and on the sides. For the greeting, I used the Sentiment Suite Thank You dies (for which there are now coordinating Hot Foil plates!) with vellum for the background and gold glitter paper for the sentiment itself. The final touch was a few Peach Fuzz gems for one last touch of sparkle!

Now for some fun giveaway information!

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel. They are also giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. The winners will be selected from the comments, so the more comments you leave, the better your chance to win!Pinkfresh Studio will pull the winners & post them on August 23, 2022 on their GIVEAWAY PAGE. Winners must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks.

Here’s the full hop list:

Colorado Craft Company-Kris Lauren August Release!

August 15, 2022

Hi there! Today, Colorado Craft Company is hosting a blog hop to celebrate their new Kris Lauren release! You should have arrived here from Daniel West, and your next stop is Jasleen Kaur. These darling new stamps are so fun to work with, and the amount of detail with these images is just lovely! I chose to create a watercolored project using the new Honey Jar stamps and dies, with lots of rich gold embellishments. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by heat embossing several images from Honey Jar on some hot press watercolor paper using gold embossing powder. For the honey jar, I first added some masking fluid on the lower portion of the jar to create some highlights and reflections. Then, after it had dried, I used my Holbein watercolors to add lots of color to the flowers, honey jar, and “sweet” fairy. I removed the masking fluid and to reveal some crisp, shiny highlights!

On the card base, I first heat randomly embossed a few of the hexagons included in the Honey Jar stamp set on a hot press A2 card base using some more gold embossing powder. I taped the embossed card base down to my watercolor board, then thoroughly wet the card base with clean water. I dropped some diluted color on the wet card base, using the same shades used to watercolor the images, but very diluted versions. Once it had dried, I splattered some gold watercolor to create an artistic background.

I die cut the finished watercolored images using the coordinating dies, then arranged them on the watercolored card front. I adhered the images with foam adhesive. For the greeting, I heat embossed a greeting from Honey Jar using some more gold embossing powder, then fussy cut them using sharp scissors and adhered them to the card front using a double layer of foam tape for lots of dimension. Finally, I adhered a smattering of matte gold pearls for one final element of golden embellishment.

Well, that’s all for my project today! Now for some fun giveaway information!

One stamp set to be given to each winner from each hop stop. Colorado Craft Company will pick the winners and include them in an email, as well as the blog post. Be sure to be on the email list or be looking at the Blog on the website to see if you were a winner! Commenters have until August 18th at midnight mountain time to enter.

CCC is also giving away a COMPLETE BUNDLE to ONE winner who uses your favorite creator’s SAS link to buy from us. Each shopper will get one entry per order. In a nutshell: if you feel so inclined to shop using one of my affiliate links, you will be entered to win a complete bundle of the new release! Click HERE to shop with my affiliate link and be entered to win!

Your next stop on the hop is Jasleen Kaur. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew August 2022 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

August 12, 2022

Hi there! Today, Altenew is celebrating their August Marvelous Monthly release with a blog hop! You should have arrived here from Kari VanNoy, and your next stop is Angela Brennan. You can also start back at the beginning at the Altenew Card Blog. I have two springy, peachy projects to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

My first project uses the beautiful new Build A Garden Daffodil Delight stamps. Daffodils are not a flower that one sees frequently in stamp form, especially not in this large size, and I couldn’t resist doing some watercoloring! I stamped the image on some Altenew Watercolor Paper using embossing ink, then heat embossed some pearlescent white embossing powder. In my opinion, the white embossing powder helps to create a faux-no-line coloring look while still allowing the ease of watercoloring with the raised embossed edge. The embossing helps create little wells to protect the edges of your image while still being subtle enough to give the impression of no-line watercoloring.

Because I wanted to keep the daffodils themselves very light, I watercolored the area around the daffodil first. Doing the background first helps me to keep perspective on how light to watercolor the image itself. If I tried to do the flowers before the background, the flowers might end up looking much darker and more intense than the image in my head. I created some unique colors by blending several shades on the Artists’ 24 Pan Watercolor paint set. It’s fun to create completely unique color palettes from the colors you already have!

After I’d finished painting the image, I die cut some Fine Frames dies from some Brushed Rose Metallic cardstock and added them to the watercolored panel. To keep things simple, I added a dimensional die cut greeting created by stacking three “hugs” die cuts cut from the Simple Greetings die set together. The final touch was to add a few iridescent yellow gems for some sparkle!

The second project features the new Craft Your Life Project Kit: Magnolia & Blooms. I started by cutting out the image with the coordinating dies, then used the beautiful 3D embossing folder included in the kit to emboss the gorgeous detailed image on the die cuts. I used some detail blending brushes to lightly blend Pastel Sunrise, Hunter Green, and Citrus Burst on the flower centers. I also added some dots of metallic rose gold marker on the flower centers.

I die cut the Moroccan Lattice cover plate die from some more white cardstock and adhered it on a white A2 card front using some liquid adhesive. I added the blended and embossed die cut using some foam adhesive.

I heat embossed a greeting from the Magnolia & Blooms stamp set using some Golden Peach embossing powder, then matted it on a slightly larger piece of Brushed Rose Metallic cardstock. I popped it up with some foam adhesive, then finally added a few gems for some sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Now, for some fun giveaway information:

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 08/18/2022 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 08/20/2022.

Your next stop on the hop is Angela Brennan. Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy hopping!

Pinkfresh Studio Challenge August 2022-Beautiful Backgrounds!

August 7, 2022

Hi there! Each month, Pinkfresh Studio hosts a challenge with a different theme, providing everybody with the opportunity to link your projects inspired by the challenge for a chance to win a Pinkfresh Studio shopping spree! This month, the challenge is Beautiful Backgrounds, and Pinkfresh Studio has such a wide variety of options for creating gorgeous backgrounds: hot foil, cover plates, stamps, stencils. I have a cool, crisp project featuring some of the beautiful colors in the inspiration graphic and one of my favorite ways to add interest to the background of floral cards: Dotted Scallops! Let’s get started on the details for my card.

I began by stamping the Cosmos Bunch stamp set that I illustrated for Pinkfresh last year twice onto some alcohol marker-friendly cardstock using black pigment ink. I then covered the sticky ink with some white pearl embossing powder to create my favorite pearlescent charcoal embossing. I colored the images using OLO markers, coloring the foliage and small bunches of flowers around the larger Cosmos first, then using some very light lavender and gray markers with the “colorless” marker to add shadows to the large Cosmos images. I also colored around the edges very lightly with a super pale aqua marker, the combination of which I think helps to create contrast for the bright white Cosmos flowers. I cut the finished colored images with the coordinating dies.

For the background, I used the beautiful Dotted Scallops cover plate to create subtle texture on my white slimline card base. This die is originally formatted to fit an A2 card front, but I ran it through my die cut machine twice, shifting it the second time to cover the bottom portion of my slimline card front. The seam of the two die cuts was slightly visible, but I was able to cover it up later. To coordinate with the blue filler flowers, I added a couple of strips of coordinating blue cardstock, one thin glitter and one textured blue cardstock, die cut using the Slim Lacy Edgers die set.

For the greeting, I used the Sentiment Suite: Hello Hot Foil Plate and coordinating die. I hot foiled the greeting using some metallic graphite colored foil to coordinate with my pearlescent charcoal embossing. I added the floral die cuts with foam adhesive, making sure to partially cover the seam of the background, then added the foiled greeting using a double layer of foam tape, covering the remainder of the background seam. The final touch was to add a few Sky Blue jewels for one final pop of blue on the card front.

Well, that’s all for my project today! The Beautiful Background theme for this month covers so much ground, with so many beautiful options for interesting backgrounds from Pinkfresh Studio. I hope you’ll check out the challenge and enter a project! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day.