better press

Altenew October 2024 Release

October 4, 2024

My friends at Altenew have a new release, and it’s a stunner, filled with gorgeous, Better Press plates, magnificent die designs, cardstocks, inks, and so much more! You can check out the full release HERE. We are hopping along today to share tons of inspiration with you using these marvelous new products. You should have arrived here from Agnieszka, and your next stop is Jaycee. You can also start the hop over on the Altenew Blog! I have a trio of projects using several of the new products, so let’s get started with the details!

*I have linked all of the products used at the bottom of the post for your convenience using affiliate links. Thank you for shopping with my links! I truly appreciate your support for my work!*

I am unabashedly in holiday cardmaking mode right now, and so I have used some of the wonderful new cardstocks with a few of somewhat older products to create some intense, vibrant holiday cards, as well as some of the new dies and Press Plates to create a monochromatic autumnal card. So much color saturation and vibrancy in these cards!

For my first project, I used the recently released Regal Wreath Press Plate set to create this incredibly festive and shiny hot foiled card. While this press plate set is meant to be used with the registration guides to create multi-layered letterpress cards, I decided to hot foil each of the layers separately onto Evergreen and Ruby Red cardstock using the new Berry Red, Emerald Green, and Kelly Green mirror foil rolls. Press plates hot foil absolutely beautifully, with nearly perfect results every single time, and the new Crafty Necessities cardstocks are so very smooth, making them a perfect canvas for hot foiling!

After hot foiling each individual layer with different colors of foil, I used very sharp scissors to fussy cut the flowers and extra holly leaves, which I then layered on the larger hot foiled wreath panel using foam adhesive. I also hot foiled a greeting from the Regal Wreath set, using Berry Mirror Hot Foil on Evergreen cardstock, creating a classic red-and-green sentiment, which I also fussy cut. I trimmed the hot foiled panel down 1/8″ on each side, then matted it in the center of some glittery red cardstock. I added some ruby gems to the centers of my flowers and topped everything off with a pretty bow! What’s a wreath without a bow, right?

For my second project, I elected to do some vibrant red color drenching to create a monochromatic holiday card using the new Geometric Essentials: Circles Press Plate as a hot foil plate to “ground” my vibrant red anemones. A friend of mine had such incredibly brilliant red anemones with black centers as her flowers for her Christmas wedding long ago, and that image of those gorgeous red anemones has stuck with me since! I thought a shiny red foil circle would be the perfect grounding backdrop for some red anemones, so I began this project by hot foiling the new Geometric Essentials: Circles Press Plate onto some Velvet cardstock using the Berry Red foil. The shiny, candy apple red foil shows up so nicely on the vibrant, deep red cardstock even though the colors are so similar. That shiny texture adds so much interest to the background!

To adorn my shiny circle ground, I die cut several blooms from the Craft-A-Flower: Japanese Anemone set from Jet Black, Evergreen, and Ruby Red cardstock. I used small blending brushes to blend Redwood and Evergreen Fresh Dye Ink on the flowers and foliage before assembling with liquid adhesive. I arranged the die cuts in a bouquet around my foiled circle, tucking a hot foiled sentiment and bow amongst the flowers. Finally, I finished everything off with another vibrant red bow. I am loving the additional texture that bows add to finished cards lately!

For my final card, I used the absolutely gorgeous new Zero Waste Autumn Leaves die with some dramatic, deep maroon solid and glitter cardstock. I started by creating another circular letter press image to “ground” my foliage die cuts by pressing the new Geometric Essentials: Circles Press Plate onto some white letterpress cardstock with Redwood Fresh Dye Ink. I love that the Fresh Dye Inks are compatible with the press plates… makes everything so much more versatile! I also pressed the new One Go Solid Sentiments Strips Press Plate + die set with the same Redwood ink, then used the coordinating die to die cut the sentiment strips. I love the simplicity of this process: press once, die cut once, and you have a bunch of sentiments ready for a rainy day!

I die cut the fabulous new Zero Waste Autumn Leaves die set from both Grapevine cardstock and Rhodolite cardstock from the Pink Brilliance Glitter cardstock set. I adhered the sentiment strip to the letterpress background with some foam adhesive, then arranged the foliage die cuts around the sentiment in a swag, mixing the solid colored cardstock with the glittery cardstock fairly evenly to create a fairly even mixture. Finally, I finished the project off with a few shimmering gems for added sparkle!

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

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by October 10th for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on October 12th, 2024.
The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

New Projects with Pinkfresh Studio!

July 24, 2024

Hi friends! I have a couple of different posts on the Pinkfresh Studio Blog to which I wanted to direct you!

You can check out the details on this shabby chic project HERE:

And you can check out my project from today HERE:

Two totally different vibes with lots of different textures and techniques! I hope you’ll check them out! 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Products used in both posts:
(Affiliate links used at no extra cost to you-thank you!)

Altenew July 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

July 10, 2024

Hi friends! I am hopping along with Altenew today to share lots of inspiration using their newest release. You should have arrived here from the Altenew Blog, and your next stop is Jaycee Gaspar. This new release is absolutely smashing, with so many beautiful new stamps, dies, press and hot foil plates, and even more additions to the marvelous Fresh Dye Ink line! I have four (yes, four!) cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

I love creating coordinating card sets, so before working with any of the new products, I selected my color palette to keep everything cohesive. I try to keep things fresh by switching up my color palettes, and as I’ve been using a lot of pink (pink is always in style with me!) and purple, I decided that I would go bold and bright with a warm yellow, black, and white color palette.

For my first project, I used the utterly luscious new Inked Poppies press plate set as the focal point for my A7 card. I inked up the press plate with black ink, then ran it through my machine using the Better Press system on a panel of Porcelain A7 Letterpress cardstock. The details on this press plate are unbelievable!! Once I had finished the letterpress, I used a blending brush to blend some Vanilla Cream Crisp Dye Ink around the edges of the panel, creating a lovely warm glow and highlighting my bold black floral image. I also used a pale yellow alcohol marker to add some details to the centers of the poppy flowers, which is not necessary but I thought really elevated the look of the background!

Once I had finished my background, I cut a simple “thank you” sentiment using the Timeless Sentiments dies, cutting the detail layer from black glitter cardstock and the shadow layer from heavyweight vellum. The vellum adds just enough softness around the edges of the black glitter sentiment to help highlight it on the busy and bold background. I popped up the greeting with some foam adhesive, then added several black gems for some lovely sparkle! I love when one image does the majority of the work for you… these cards would be gorgeous as thank you notes, and super easy to create in multiples and in a different color palette!!!

For my second card, I used the amazing Blossoming Bouquet product suite, this time as a hot foil plate rather than a press plate. I hot foiled the main floral bouquet onto some white cardstock using the new Ivory Black hot foil roll, then used the beautiful yellows and greens in the Firewood Garden Alcohol Marker set to add some vibrant color to the blooms. They reminded me of sweet little buttercups, so I thought that the yellow was the perfect color choice! I knew that I wanted those sweet yellow blooms to pop from a stark black background, so I colored around the edges of the die cut and colored flowers with a black alcohol ink marker to keep the white edges of the die cut from detracting from the overall color palette.

*You might be wondering why I didn’t just use this plate as a letter press plate if I was going to hot foil in black; I wanted to use alcohol markers, and they don’t play very nicely with the super absorbent cotton letterpress paper.*

After I had finished coloring and cutting the main floral focal point, I die cut some solid foliage using the Just Leaves dies and some black glitter cardstock. I arranged the die cuts on a solid black A2 card front, using liquid adhesive for the glittery die cuts and some foam adhesive for the colorful bouquet to add different heights and textures to my card front. I had also hot foiled a greeting from the Blossoming Bouquet product suite using some more of the black hot foil, then used some residual Vanilla Cream ink left over on my blending brush from the first card to add some warmth to my white sentiment die cut. I popped it up with some more foam adhesive and added a few gems to finish it off!

For the last card in my coordinating card set, I used the spectacular new White Cap Peonies stencil set with some yummy yellow and green inks to create this incredibly sunny card! I blended the different layers of the stencils using the older Vanilla Cream ink with the newer Sunkissed Delights Fresh Dye Ink, lessening or intensifying my blending pressure to create several values of yellow amongst all of the layers. Once I had finished blending the images, I blended some more of the Vanilla Cream ink around the edges of my card front, creating that same gorgeous, warm glow on my background. It almost looks like the sun is shining out from the card!!

For the greeting, I pressed a sentiment from the recently released Sunshine Greetings Press Plate set and coordinating dies using black ink. I thought that this particular greeting worked a treat with the sunny color palette on this card! I used a yellow alcohol marker to dye some thin white silk ribbon, which I tied in a bow and tucked beneath the popped up sentiment die cut. Finally, I added a few shimmering yellow gems for some added sparkle. I am absolutely in love with the color palette for these cards, and need to remind myself to use yellow more frequently!

For my last card, I used the new Warm Gray Fresh Dye Ink and Tea Party Fresh Dye Ink quartets with the Floral Radiance Stencil set to create this pretty floral card. I ink blended the flowers with the Tea Party inks, adding details to the flower centers with the Warm Gray and finishing the foliage off with some muted green inks. I die cut a Timeless Sentiments greeting using the Milky Way Glitter cardstock and some vellum, then added some coordinating deep gray frames from the Fine Frames Cover Die set, finishing this simple card off with a white silk bow and some sparkly gems! I love how beautifully these new Fresh Dye Inks work together!

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

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by July 16, 2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on July 18, 2024.*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Altenew June 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

June 6, 2024

Hi friends! I am taking part in Altenew’s June 2024 Release Blog Hop. You should have arrived here from Michelle Short, and your next stop is Svitlana Shayevich. You can find the full hop list at the bottom of this post, or you can go to the Altenew Blog. This month’s new release (check out the full release HERE) is filled with beautiful new florals (of course), fabulous textures and Press Plates, and some truly stunning new Fresh Dye Ink families! I have two sweet and delicate cards to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

The new Botanical Brilliance Fresh Dye Ink families are some of my most favorite that have been released so far. The soft blush, buttery yellow, and fresh greens work so perfectly together as well as with other color families. I used all three color families for both of my cards today to create these very soft, ethereal, dreamy cards.

For my first card, I began by heat embossing the exceptionally beautiful and meandering floral arrangement from the new Build-A-Garden: Branching Roses onto a white, A2 card front using some gold pearl embossing powder. I then used the included coordinating layering stencils to blend Peachy Glow, Golden Honeycomb, Strawberry, Dusty Pink, Blush Rose, Pistachio, Misty Sage, and Mossy Meadow Fresh Dye Inks from the new Blushberry Bliss, Sun-Kissed Delights, and Jade Dreams Fresh Dye Ink families. I love these gentle colors, made even more subtle with a light hand while blending. After I had finished blending the images with the stencils, I used a larger blending brush to lightly blend Strawberry and Dusty Pink inks from the Blushberry Bliss ink quartet around the edges of the panel. The resulting panel is so soft and dreamy!

After I had finished creating the panel, I stamped some of the sentiments from the Build-A-Garden: Branching Roses stamp set onto some white cardstock using Raspberry Sunset ink from the Blushberry Bliss ink quartet, then stamped directly over the top with embossing ink, then added some more gold pearl embossing powder to create custom colored embossed sentiments. I fussy cut the larger sentiment with my sharp scissors, then used my trimmer to trim down the sentiment strip. I adhered the sentiment strip to a slightly larger piece of gold pearl cardstock, which coordinated nicely with the pretty gold pearl embossing. I popped up the greeting pieces with some foam adhesive, then added a smattering of Ethereal Stones Rhinestones from Trinity Stamps and a white silk ribbon to truly complete the feminine aesthetic of this card.

For my second project, I continued this airy feminine theme with the Craft-A-Flower: Japanese Anemone and older Rustling Leaves Press Plate and coordinating die. I began by die cutting all of the elements of the new Craft-A-Flower: Japanese Anemone from white cardstock, then used blending brushes to blend Strawberry, Dusty Pink, Pistachio, and Misty Sage inks from the new Blushberry Bliss, Sun-Kissed Delights, and Jade Dreams Fresh Dye Ink families to “color” them. The lovely soft colors of the inks were made even softer with the light ink blending, creating the prettiest pale pink anemones! I also used the Mossy Meadow ink from Jade Dreams to impress the leaf images from the Rustling Leaves Press Plate and die cut them with the coordinating die.

For the background, I wanted to keep the softness of the flowers but still add some minimal texture behind my floral bouquet, so I inked up the Rustic Burlap Press Plate with Strawberry ink and ran it through my Better Press system. The soft pink helps make the textured pattern a bit more visible than simply running the plate through without inking. I arranged the florals on the textured background and adhered them with both liquid and foam adhesive for lots of different textures and heights, then added a letter press greeting from the Rustling Leaves product suite, inked up with darker Green Opal ink from the Jade Dreams ink family to help it stand out amongst the florals. Finally, I added a few shimmering iridescent gems for a bit of sparkle!

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

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by June 12, 2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on June 14, 2024.
*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Here’s the full hop list:

Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy hopping!

Pinkfresh Studio “Happiness” Release Blog Hop

May 31, 2024

Hi friends! Today, Pinkfresh Studio is releasing their new Happiness collection, filled with absolutely gorgeous new Better Press Plates, stamps, dies, and stencils. We are hopping along to celebrate the new release and inspire you with all of the marvelous new goodies! You can see the full hop list down at the bottom of the post, along with the giveaway and freebie information.

For both of my projects, I used a stunning combination of Coral Reef, Begonia, and Mulberry Blush ink. This ink combination creates a beautiful, unique fade from coral into mauve, which I thought worked perfectly with the cherry blossom images in the new Beautiful Branch Press Plate and coordinating die. I loved the combination so much that I used it for my second card featuring the new Twist Pattern Press Plate. Let’s get started with the details on my projects!

I started by creating a lovely textured background using the Beautiful Branch Press Plate set. To do this, I simply place the Press Plate on my cotton letterpress paper in the correct spot and run it through my Platinum 6 using the Better Press system without adding any ink to the plate. This debosses the pattern into the thick cotton paper, creating beautiful texture without adding additional color. I ran the plate through multiple times, rotating the plate each time to deboss the pattern in different spots and creating a halo of dripping cherry blossom branches on the side of my A2 cotton panel.

After I had finished impressing my pattern in the background, I used blending brushes to blend Coral Reef, Begonia, and Mulberry Blush ink, which I think creates the loveliest cherry blossom “haze” for my background. The ink blending over the top of the debossed images really helps to enhance them. After I had finished ink blending, I splattered the background with some sparkly glitter watercolors for added interest and sparkle!

After I had finished my background, I inked up the Beautiful Branches plate using Begonia ink and ran it through my Better Press system, then die cut the finished image with the coordinating die. I lightly blended some more Begonia ink in the center of the flowers, then used some more sparkling glitter watercolors on the edges of the blooms to add subtle shimmer and to coordinate with the background. I also used the new Decorative Frames Press Plate and coordinating die with Begonia ink, then die cut the finished frames. I love that you ink and die cut once to create a multitude of frames in different sizes! So clever. I arranged the frames on my pressed and blended card front, then used foam tape to adhere the different elements. I heat embossed a greeting from the Beautiful Branch stamp set onto some coordinating mauve cardstock, then die cut it with the super detailed coordinating die. Finally, I added a few Blossom Glitter Drops for extra sparkle!

For my second card, I thought that I would make a monochromatic ombré flat shaker card, embellishing the front of the shaker with an ombré pressed die cut. I started by inking up the Twist Pattern Press Plate and coordinating die using Coral Reef, Begonia, and Mulberry Blush ink. The coating on the plates makes it super easy to use multiple ink colors on your plates, and the colors fade very nicely into each other as long as you ensure that they overlap. After running the inked background panel through the Better Press system, I used blending brushes to blend the same ink shades onto the entire piece of cardstock, which creates a very subtle tone-on-tone blend over the impressed pattern. After I had finished blending, I die cut the Twist Pattern Press Plate image using the coordinating die and set it aside.

To create the flat shaker, I blended the same shades of ink on a full size A2 panel of white cardstock, then used some leftover stamp packaging to create the shaker pocket. I filled the shaker with some coordinating sequins from the Gilded Sequin pack and mounted the Twist Pattern die cut on the front with some foam adhesive squares.

To adorn my shaker, I stamped the floral images from the new Be Fearless stamp set using Mulberry Blush ink, then stamped directly over the top with sticky embossing ink, then added some Iridescent Lavender embossing powder to create a custom embossing color. Using the same color inks, I blended only three of the the different layers of the Be Fearless layering stencils, preferring only to ensure that the images had flat color rather than super detailed layers. I cut the images out with their coordinating dies, as well as another sentiment from Beautiful Branches. I popped both of the die cuts up with some more foam adhesive. This flat shaker card is so much fun and so unique! I love that you don’t need to have a bulky frame to have a shaker card like I used to make many years ago.

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

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel. They will also be giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. Be sure to leave a comment on each stop on the hop for maximum entries, because the winners will be selected from the comments.
Winners will be selected and posted on June 11, 2024 on our GIVEAWAY PAGE. Winners must check that page & claim their prize within 2 weeks.

Here’s the full hop list in case you get lost:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!