brushed sentiments

Pinkfresh Studio “Delightful” Release Blog Hop

April 29, 2024

Hi friends! Today, Pinkfresh Studio is hopping along to celebrate not only their new Delightful release, but also their tenth anniversary! How exciting is that?! We have a blog hop chock full of inspiration and prizes, as well as a fun freebie available while supplies last. I have two projects bursting with peachy pink color and fun, sparkling details to share with you today, so let’s get started with the details!

Whenever I am stuck for how to start a project, I head to my Pinterest board for color combinations. From there, I match inks and cardstock and color mediums and begin to get a picture of what the finished project will look like in my head! I selected one of my color combination pins, then plucked Cherry Blossom, Peony, Raspberry Bliss, and Lush Forest inks to use with the new products.

For my first project, I used my MISTI to emboss the main image from Never Give Up with Hero Arts Iridescent Green embossing powder around the edges of a white A2 card front, creating an intricate floral border. I also heat embossed the floral bouquet in its entirety on a separate panel of white cardstock, again with the Hero Arts Iridescent Green embossing powder. I used blending brushes to blend Cherry Blossom, Peony, Raspberry Bliss, and Lush Forest inks with the coordinating Never Give Up layering stencils on the images around the edge of the card front and on the separate image. I used the coordinating dies to die cut the standalone image.

Once I had finished blending with the stencils, I used a larger blending brush to blend the Peony and Raspberry Bliss inks around the edge of the card front, creating a soft pink glow around the clean center.

For the greeting, I die cut one of the dies from the Notched Corner Frame die set from some Hero Arts vellum. Using semi-transparent vellum allows you to add another layer of height without really adding any additional weight to the card front. I heat embossed one of the greeting from Never Give Up using more of the iridescent green embossing powder, then die cut it and used residual ink left over on the blending brushes to add a bit of peachy color to the die cut. I also die cut “MOM” with the Julieta Alpha dies from Magenta glitter cardstock to create a custom Mother’s Day sentiment. (Alpha dies are always nice to have on had so that you can create unique and sometimes unexpected greetings with simple sentiment stamps!) I popped up the greeting pieces on the vellum die cut using foam adhesive, then trimmed the individual flowers from the stenciled Never Give Up die cut and arranged them so that they were in the foreground framing the greeting. A few Bubblegum jewels finished it off!

For my second project, I wanted to put to use the beautiful new Amazing Things press plate. I cannot get enough of hot foiling with the press plates, as the coating for the letter press seems to help give almost flawless results with hot foil. I hot foiled the main image from Amazing Things onto the center of an A2 white cardstock panel using Pewter foil. I used OLO markers to color the image in magenta and peach tones to coordinate with the color palette from the first project. Once I had finished coloring the image, I trimmed the panel down slightly and used blending brushes to blend Cherry Blossom, Peony, and Raspberry Bliss ink around the edge of the card front, creating a soft halo around the colored image. I carefully splattered some shimmering glitter watercolors around the edge of the blended area, then mounted the entire panel in the center of a piece of A2 Magenta glitter cardstock.

To create the greeting, I hot foiled one of the sentiments included with the Amazing Things press plate set, then used the negative leftovers with the Solid Hot Foil Plate to create a reverse white on pewter sentiment, which I cut with the coordinating die. I die cut a vellum oval using the Blanket Stitched Ovals die set and let it hang over the edge of the card front, trimming off the excess. I created a custom colored bow by using one of the same pink markers used to color the image to color some plain white silk ribbon in my stash. I tucked the bow beneath the vellum oval with some liquid adhesive, then added a smattering of Bubblegum jewels for added sparkle!

To celebrate ten marvelous years of Pinkfresh Studio, they are offering a free gift with purchase while supplies last! The gorgeous Make a Wish press plate will not be available for individual purchase, but as a free gift with your purchase of $50 or more! I created a fun shaker card using the new Make A Wish press plate as a hot foil plate.

I love using press plates as hot foil plates, and I think it is so fun and unique to use them with heat-resistant acetate. I used some magenta foil with the new Make A Wish press plate freebie on some Spellbinders Glimmer Specialty Film Sheets to create a detailed foiled overlay for my shaker window. I used the same Cherry Blossom, Peony, and Raspberry Bliss inks to blend around the edges of my A2 card front, helping to add some interest behind the foiled window. I die cut the foiled acetate background using the Notched Corner Frame die, then created a frame from some Magenta glitter cardstock and adhered the two together. I added a continuous line of foam adhesive around the back side of the frame and filled my shaker with some coordinating pink sequins from my stash.

For a simple birthday greeting, I stamped the Brushed Sentiments stamp set with Raspberry Bliss ink, then stamped directly over the top with some sticky embossing ink and added some Hero Arts Iridescent Purple embossing powder over the top to create a custom-colored embossed sentiment. I die cut the greeting with the coordinating dies and used some residual ink on the blending brushes to add some color to the die cut edges. I embellished the greeting with a few pink Stylized Florals die cuts, adding some Bubblegum jewels for a bit more sparkle!

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. The winners will be selected from the comments across the hop participants. Winners will be posted on May 7, 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!

VIDEO: Watercoloring Christmas Presents with Pinkfresh Studio!

September 20, 2023

Hi friends! Today, I have a video over on the Pinkfresh Studio YouTube Channel with some tips on how to achieve simple shading on objects with lots of straight lines, like these Christmas presents! Watch the video below or HERE on YouTube.

With geometric objects like boxes, one of the important ways that an artist can add depth is to keep location of the light source in mind while painting. When I am painting or coloring, I am envisioning the light source coming straight at the image from the front, so that the areas in the “back” are shadowed, while the areas in the foreground are lighter. For these holiday gifts from the Christmas Presents stamp set, I used concentrated ink from Tombow watercolor markers on the shadowed edges of the presents (that is, no dilution with clean water) and then used diluted color on the front of the boxes to create that contrast between the dark and light. I die cut the finished gifts using the Coordinating Christmas Presents Dies.

I knew that I wanted to create a shaker card, because who doesn’t love a festive shaker card, and I love adding subtle textured details to the shaker background. I trimmed down a panel of blush cardstock to 5″ x 5″ as well as a panel of pearlescent blush cardstock from my stash. Using my Fiskars trimmer, I trimmed out a square from the center, creating a thick blush cardstock frame, and added some clear acetate to the back to create my shaker window. To add the subtle texture to the background, I ran the pearlescent panel through my die cut machine using the Stitched Christmas Star cover plate die. This die is sized to work for an A2 card front, but because the blush frame was a bit thicker around the edges, I was able to hide the edges of the panel that weren’t completely covered by the stitched cover plate die.

I filled my shaker with sequins from my stash in coordinating shades of pine green, dark teal, and pink, then closed it up with foam adhesive. I arranged the die cut and watercolored gifts in a little trio on the corner of the shaker card, popping the gift in front up with some foam adhesive. For the greeting, I used a sentiment from the Brushed Sentiments Hot Foil Plate, hot foiled with matte silver foil and die cut with the Coordinating Dies. To keep my color scheme cohesive throughout all of the elements, I lightly blended some Ballet Slipper ink over the top of the hot foiled greeting. I popped the sentiment pieces up with some more foam adhesive!

Well, that’s all for my project today! Normally, my watercoloring is filled with lots of curvature and organic movement, but it was fun to challenge myself to see if I could do some simple watercoloring on these boxes with so many straight lines! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day.

Pinkfresh Studio March Challenge-Layers!

March 8, 2023

Hi friends! March has begun, so we are introducing a new challenge over at Pinkfresh Studio. This month, our theme is Layers. This theme was pretty darn easy for me, as I layer layer layer on pretty much all of my cards…Creating a flat card is so difficult for me! I love foam tape and I cannot lie. I used a variety of older products, including my Magnolia stamp set, which is great fun for watercoloring. Let’s get started with the details!

I began by heat embossing all of the images from one of my favorite sets that I’ve illustrated for Pinkfresh Studio: Magnolia! I used white embossing powder to emboss the one-and-done stamp. (I love that you only have to stamp once to stamp all of the images included in this set! So quick and easy.) When I want to create a softer look, I reach for the lighter embossing powders, like white or white satin pearl. It helps to give the softness of no-line coloring, but with the ease of having those raised ridges to make your watercoloring a little simpler. I heat embossed the images on the smoother side of some Arches cold press watercolor paper, then used my Daniel Smith watercolors to add some soft painting in shades that coordinated with the color scheme for this month’s challenge. I made sure to add some pale turquoise watercolor around the edges of my images so that the die cuts would have that finished, polished look on the eventual card front. I used the coordinating one-and-done die to cut out my watercolored magnolia flowers.

Because this month’s challenge was layers, I turned to my dies to see what dies I could layer beneath the pretty pink blooms to create subtle layers without overwhelming the card. I always like to have some subtle texture behind my flowers to help add interest, and I usually achieve this with either tone-on-tone cover plate die cuts or adding stitched texture with a cover plate, so I thought why not combine the two techniques? I wanted to use the Simply Hexagons Cover Plate Die, so to coordinate with the hexagon shapes in the cover plate, I also pulled out the Hexagon Tiles Cover Plate die, which adds a beautiful stitched pattern to your solid cardstock. I used a favorite shade of icy pastel blue cardstock for both die cuts, creating a tone-on-tone background for my pretty pink blooms.

To create a ground for my floral bouquet, I die cut a small Essentials: Ornate Banner die from some vellum. The die cut shape itself provides a bit of a ground around which my floral bouquet can shape itself, while the semi-transparent vellum does not had any extra bulk. I arranged my die cut and watercolored flowers around the corner of the vellum, adhering them to the vellum die cut with liquid adhesive and then hiding my foam tape behind the solid die cuts. I also added a few iridescent white leaves cut using the Curvy Leaves dies (another layer!), tucking them in amongst the floral bouquet. For the greeting, I used one of my previously-hot foiled Brushed Sentiments greetings, foiled using the “leftovers” and the Solid Hot Foil Plate. I popped that up with a double layer of foam tape to help the greeting stand out even more, then added a few sparkling Blush Glitter Drops for one last layer and bit of sparkle!

Well, that’s all for my project today. The Pinkfresh Studio March 2023 Challenge runs through March 28, 2023, and there is a $50 shopping spree up for grabs! Simply create your own project (or projectS!) with lots of layers, and link them up to the challenge before 3/28 to be eligible to win. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Pinkfresh Studio Inspiration Challenge-January 2023!

January 12, 2023

Each month, Pinkfresh Studio hosts a challenge with a different theme, which can be used as your inspiration to create a project and enter it to win a $50 shopping spree! The first challenge for 2023 is “Challenge Review,” where you can choose any of the challenge themes from the last year to use as your inspiration for your own project! I chose to use the March 2022-Frame It Up challenge as my inspiration to create this soft card, full of cool mauves and lavender, with touches of shiny metallic charcoal foil. Let’s get started with the details!

When creating projects for the new releases, I always hot foil a bunch of the new images and sentiments to save for a rainy day. I have been wanting to use my OLO Markers on the Floral Border Hot Foil image that I hot foiled last month. I had hot foiled the image on some Hammermill cardstock using matte charcoal foil from the Satin Metallics Variety Pack.

I used the coordinating die to cut out foiled image, creating a floral frame. I colored the images with my OLO Markers in a muted color palette of pale lavender, cool mauve, and some minty foliage. I am in love with how beautifully these colors worked together! Using my sharp scissors, I did some trimming to create a floral frame on just one side of my A2 card front.

For the background, I wanted a subtle pattern to accent the colors on my floral frame without adding too much to distract from the pretty flowers, so I used one of the Diamond Plaid Stencils and lightly blended Ballet Slipper and Misty Coast with blending brushes to create a dusty mauve that coordinated nicely with the large flowers in the floral frame.

I added a rectangular hot foiled frame created using the satin charcoal foil and the Nested Rectangles Hot Foil and Coordinating Dies, adhering it to the plaid background using foam adhesive. I arranged the floral die cut border around the frame, tucking a couple of the “leftovers” on the edge of the frame itself. I also added a greeting created using the Brushed Sentiments Hot Foil and Coordinating Dies, which I hot foiled onto some acetate to create a floating sentiment! (Have you tried hot foiling on acetate yet? It’s SO fun!) I added a few Blossom glitter drops for some sparkle!

Well that’s all for this project! If you haven’t checked out the challenge, I hope you will do so. There are so many fun themes and color schemes from which to choose, not to mention there’s a $50 shopping spree up for grabs! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and have a marvelous day!

Pinkfresh Studio Holiday 2022 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway!

September 12, 2022

It’s that time again… time for Christmas crafting to get into full swing!! I am in love with the new Pinkfresh Studio Holiday 2022 collection… so many beautiful new stamps, dies, hot foil plates, and stencils, with elegant, timeless themes and images that will last for years! We are hopping along to inspire you today (you can find the full hop list at the bottom of this post), and I have two projects to share with you, so let’s get started with the details!

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that one of my most favorite things about crafting is color. I love to use dramatic and unexpected color combinations… but I also equally love white space and allowing texture and height to be the star of the show. These cards combine my love of brilliant color with that gorgeous white space. For all of my cards, I kept the color scheme to a bold and unique holiday color scheme of hot pink, lime green, and crisp white, with some metallic shine thrown in for some extra holiday festiveness!

I began my first card by heat embossing the images from the new Holiday Elements stamp set using white pearl embossing powder on white cardstock. I then added lots of color to the images using the coordinating Holiday Elements stencils, using blending brushes and Raspberry Bliss, Bubble Gum, Sparkling Rose, Key Lime, and Grassy Knoll inks from Pinkfresh Studio. The hint of metallic shine from the pearlescent embossed lines is so festive! I die cut the finished images using the coordinating Holiday Elements die.

For the greeting, I combined the fabulous new Merry and Bright Hot Foil Plate and coordinating die with the Solid Hot Foil Plate. The Solid Hot Foil Plate leaves the negative space from the original image the color of your cardstock, so these chunky white letters framed by hot pink glittery foil worked perfectly with the crisp white accents of the stenciled images.

I trimmed down a white slimline card base, then added a label from the Slim Ornate Banner die set, popping it up with foam adhesive. I arranged the holiday images and greeting on the card front, allowing some to spill over the sides, and adhering them with single and double layers of foam tape to add lots of height and dimension to the card front. I also added a few glittering foliage die cuts, cut using the Dainty Blossoms dies. The final touch was to add some sparkling Bubblegum gems to help add one last element of holiday sparkle!

My second project features the new Ornaments Hot Foil Plate with the coordinating Stencils and Dies. I used the same ink shades from the previous project (Raspberry Bliss, Bubble Gum, Sparkling Rose, Key Lime, and Grassy Knoll) to add lots of vivid color to the hot foiled ornaments. I also paired the leftover foil piece with the Solid Hot Foil Plate, creating solid metallic foil ornaments!

For the greeting, I used Olive, Key Lime, and Grassy Knoll inks to blend sentiments from the brand new Brushed Sentiments: Holiday stencils. These sentiments are *so* unique and the font is absolutely gorgeous!! I die cut the finished stenciled images with the coordinating dies, and because of the multi-sentiment layout of the stencils, I was able to stencil and die cut a ton of greetings in one fell swoop! I always love this feature of the Pinkfresh Studio product suites, but it’s especially handy for holiday crafting, don’t you think? If stenciling isn’t your favorite thing, it is especially nice that there are also coordinating Brushed Holiday Stamps and Brushed Holiday Hot Foil Plates available, so you have tons of options depending on your area of interest!

I die cut a crisp white background using the Diagonal Stitched Plaid die, as well as a glittery gold frame from the Mini Slimline Stitched Scalloped Rectangle die, which I trimmed down slightly and popped up on the plaid die cut card front using foam tape. I arranged the ornaments on the card front, clustering them together as though they were hanging from the ceiling from different lengths, and adhering them using foam tape and liquid adhesive. Finally, I added the Brushed Sentiments: Holiday greeting using a double layer of foam tape so that it really stands out from the colorful background images. The final touch was a few Emerald City Gems for some more sparkle!

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

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel, so be sure to check those out! They will also be giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. As per usual with blog hops – the winners will be picked from the comments. The winners will be announced on September 20, 2022 on our GIVEAWAY PAGE. Winners must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks.

Here’s the full hop list so that you can check out the masses of inspiration to jumpstart your holiday cardmaking! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!