Alex Syberia Designs One-Year Anniversary Release Blog Hop | Giveaway | Over £800 ($1000) in prizes

Hi friends! Today, I am ever so excited to be joining a blog hop to celebrate one year of fabulousness from Alex Syberia Designs!! You should have arrived here from Raquel, and your next stop is Erin. You can also find the full hop list over on the Alex Syberia Designs Blog Post. To celebrate this impressive achievement, tons of your favorite companies are joining in on the fun and have sponsored marvelous giveaways. Read all the way to the bottom to find out how you can be one of the winners of these fabulous prizes!

I have a thing for birthday cards. I love to go all out on them and make them crazy festive, with tons of layers, sparkles, textures… the sky is the limit! I think going all out on the birthday card makes the recipient feel extra loved, and who wouldn’t want that? Balloons with flowers are certainly having a moment on my blog (remember this project??), and I fell in love with these beautiful, sketchy floral clusters from the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) and Dies (ASD | SSS), so much so that I created two different cards using two different techniques using these gorgeous balloons! Let’s get started with the details.

For my first project, I wanted to create some transparent balloons to make them look as life-like as possible by adding color with some light ink blending. I also wanted to test out my Karin Decobrush Pigment Markers on vellum to create the opaque flowers! I am absolutely in love with this technique and can’t wait to play with it some more.

I started by heat embossing the different balloons included in the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) set using gold embossing powder on some lighter weight vellum paper. I then die cut the individual images with the Coordinating Dies (ASD | SSS). Once I had each of the individual components ready, I flipped them over and began using the opaque Karin Decobrush Pigment Markers on the flowers only. Adding this opaque color on the back of the die cuts allows the details of the embossing to still be visible from the front. Because the floral images are on the small side, you don’t need to worry much about adding details and shading, because the embossed details on the front do the work for you. The opaque paint is solely adding color to the image, as well as a sneaky place to hide your adhesive!

After the paint had dried, keeping the balloons with the embossing face down on my work surface, I used a blending brush to blend Cheeky and Blush Pawsitively Saturated Inks. The semi-transparent vellum combined with the water-based dye ink allows the ink to simply dye the vellum without compromising the transparency! I think the balloons look positively weightless and so unique. It’s such a fun technique! I also heat embossed some balloon strings on some more vellum to allow them to “float” on my card front, as well.

For the background, I die cut a slimline panel of white cardstock using the new Slimline Nested Stitched Die (ASD | SSS). I then used the same Cheeky and Blush Pawsitively Saturated Inks with the super festive and fun new Carnival Party Stencil + Die (ASD | SSS) set from the Alex Syberia Birthday Release. I blended the two part streamer stencils on the top of my die cut panel, then lightly blended the Cheeky ink around the upper edges of the panel. I splattered the entire piece with some super sparkly gold watercolors, as well.

For the greeting, I hot foiled the sentiment strips using the new Celebrations Sentiments Hot Foil Plate (ASD | SSS) onto some white cardstock using shining gold foil, then die cut the sentiments with the Thin Stripes Cover Die (ASD | SSS). (I have a bunch of birthday sentiments ready to go-love these one-and-done hot foil plate and die sets!) I also die cut the “wish” portion of the Birthday & Wish Die Set (ASD | SSS) from some super shiny gold mirror cardstock. I arranged the balloons on my blended card front, hiding the clear dimensional adhesive behind the opaque floral bouquets, then added my sentiment pieces. The final touch was to add a few shimmering gems to this super festive card front! I love that you can still see the streamers through the balloons. So much fun!

My second card is a bit more traditional. I heat embossed the balloons and the gorgeous floral bouquet from the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) set on some watercolor paper using pale rose gold embossing powder. I then added lots of beautiful pink, peach, and jade watercolor to the images using my Karin Brushmarker Pro watercolor markers. I glazed the finished pink balloons with some super shimmery, handmade glitter watercolors from Etsy, as well. Birthday cards, especially super feminine pink floral birthday cards, need as much sparkle as you can pack on, in my opinion!

For the background, I cut down an A2 panel of Dragonfruit cardstock from Concord and 9th and blended it with the coordinating Dragonfruit Ink around the edges of the card front. I splattered some more rose gold metallic watercolor on the background to add extra interest and shimmer to the background.

For the greeting, I heat embossed one of the beautiful scripty sentiments included in the Floral Balloon Extravaganza Stamps (ASD | SSS) set using the pale rose gold embossing powder. I used the coordinating dies (notice the sentiment dies for each individual sentiment, including the tiny sentiment strips! Now that is some attention to detail! Well done, Alex!) to die cut the sentiments. I then arranged the floral bouquet and balloons on my blended, splattered card front using foam adhesive for extra dimension. I heat embossed some more balloon strings on vellum so that they were as floaty and ethereal as possible, then added them to the card front with tiny dots of liquid adhesive. I added the greeting pieces using more foam tape, finally finishing the card off with some sparkly gems!

Well, that’s all for my projects today! Now for the fun giveaway information I promised at the beginning of the post:

To celebrate their birthday, Alex Syberia Designs has collaborated with a ton of wonderful sponsors to give away a grand total of £800 ($1000) in prizes!

Alex Syberia Designs: 5x £40 ($50) Gift Cards

Altenew : $50 Gift Card
Auzz Trinklets n crafts : $30AUD Gift Card
Crafty Purple Frog: £25 Gift Card
Dies to Die For : £25 Gift Card
Doeading : 50€ Gift Card (only for EU)
Gina K  : $100 Gift Card
Glitter and ink : $50 CAD Gift Card (only for Canada)
Jennifer McGuire Ink : 1 Share Handmade Kindness goodies bag -$75value
Kit & Clowder : $15 Gift Card
Mennys Bastelshop : 2x 20€ Gift Cards (EU)
Online Card Classes : 3 x free spots to any classes
Paper & i : $25 Gift Card (only for USA)
Pear Blossom press : $25 Gift Card
Scrap Shotz : $25 CAD Gift Card (only for Canada)
Seize the Stamp : 2x CHF 25 Gift Cards
Simon Says Stamp : $100 Gift Card
SCT Magazine : $50 Gift Card
The Glitter Hubb : $25 CAD Gift Card
WOW Embossing : 2x $25 Gift Cards

Be sure to leave comments by midnight BST (London, UK time) on September 17th, 2023, for a chance to win!

Start your comment by telling us where you’re from (USA, Canada, Europe, or Australia) and what your favorite product is from this September Anniversary release.

All the winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the posts in the blog hop, upcoming YouTube hop, and the three upcoming Instagram hops. Winners will be announced on the Alex Syberia Designs GIVEAWAY WINNERS PAGE on September 18th, 2023.

Make sure to come back and check if you are a winner! Prizes not claimed within two weeks will be forfeited.

To increase your chances of winning, be sure to comment on this blog hop, the upcoming Anniversary Video Hop that starts on the 9th of Sep on Alex Syberia Designs YT Channel, and the three consecutive Instagram Hops on Alex Syberia Designs  Instagram starting on the 11th of September.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, friends, and happy anniversary to Alex Syberia Designs! May this be the first of many years of success!