giveaway

Simon Says Stamp Festive Fun Blog Hop-Day 1!

November 8, 2024

This post was sponsored by Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Simon!

Hi friends! I am hopping along with Simon Says Stamp today to celebrate their new Festive Fun release! You should have arrived here from Amy Rysavy, and your next stop is Debby Hughes. You can also find the full hop list on the Simon Says Stamp Blog. I am always excited for a new release and all of the creative possibilities that it brings, but the opportunity to play with my own illustrations always makes the creative process even more thrilling. I have two new sets that debuted with the Festive Fun release: Old Fashioned Christmas and Poinsettia Swag. I shared some inspiration using the Old Fashioned Christmas in THIS blog post on release night, but I thought I’d share a video for today’s hop using the new Poinsettia Swag set. I am a sucker for a good floral arrangement, and what flower is more iconic for the holidays than the poinsettia? You can watch the video below or click HERE to watch it on YouTube.

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

If you can’t watch the video, I’ll give a quick rundown of my process! I began by stamping my new Poinsettia Swag illustration in the corners of an A2 panel of Hammermill cardstock using Simon Says Stamp’s Intense Black Ink, then used OLO markers to add vibrant color to the images in traditional shades of vivid ruby red and jade green. I used the coordinating die to die cut the images, and because they were stamped in the corners of the A2 card front, they each have some straight edges. I didn’t mind the straight edges, because I knew that I wanted to frame them with some glittery cardstock!

To create the background for the vibrant floral arrangements, I wanted to add a very subtle pattern and colorful glow behind the floral die cuts. I used the stamping off method to add some a subtle floral pattern on the edges of my A7 card front, inking up the Poinsettia Swag stamp as normal with Cranberry Pawsitively Saturated Ink, pressing the stamp once onto a piece of scratch paper, then using the residual ink to stamp the image again on the card front. This technique creates a light pattern on the background that does not overpower the colorful floral bouquets. After I had finished stamping, I toned the pattern down even further by adding some tone-on-tone ink blending over the stamped areas.

After I had completed my background, I die cut the A7 Nesting Frames from some gorgeous Ruby Glitter Cardstock from Pinkfresh Studio. I like to leave my frame dies wired together so that I can cut a huge variety of sizes from one pass through my die cut machine! I saved the rest of the frames for a rainy day and adhered one to my stamped and blended background using liquid adhesive. I arranged the poinsettia swag die cuts around the frame, using the straight edges of the frame as a guide for where to place my florals. I popped up the flowers with some thin foam adhesive squares, then added two different greeting components. I stamped, heat embossed, and die cut a greeting from Poinsettia Swag, pairing it with a sentiment from the Reverse Holiday Greetings sentiment card set that I had foiled with some gorgeous red toner foil and my Minc machine. I tucked the greetings amongst the florals with some foam adhesive, then added a festive red bow and some Peppermint Pawsitively Dazzling Gems. Definitely a special card meant for an important person!

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

Simon Says Stamp is giving away a $25 coupon to every stop on the hop! The winners will be selected from each blog comment section and posted on the Simon Says Stamp blog on Wednesday the 13th of November. Winners can email Simon Says Stamp to claim his/her prize!!

Simon Says Stamp is also offering a fabulous Free Gift With Purchase. Simply add $100 or more from the Festive Fun release to receive the adorable Cozy Together stamp and die set totally free, added to your cart automatically! What a great gift, right??

Your next stop is Debby Hughes. Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy hopping!

Pinkfresh Studio “Kindness in Bloom” Release Blog Hop

October 8, 2024

Good morning friends! I am hopping along with Pinkfresh Studio today to share inspiration using some of the gorgeous new goodies from the Kindness In Bloom release! This new release is filled with stunning florals in all forms: stamps, dies, stencils, and press plates, but we also have some marvelous new Essentials dies that are going to be staples in your craft room, as well. I have two projects using some beautiful blue tones, 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!*

For both of my projects today, I used the new Print Shop Modern Botanicals stamp, die, and stencil product suite (there is also a coordinating Press Plate, but I focused on the stamp set today so that I could do some heat embossing!). To start, I stamped the beautiful Print Shop Modern Botanicals cling stamp twice onto some pale aqua cardstock from my stash using white pigment ink, which I then covered with Iridescent Blue embossing powder to create a shimmery, iridescent, almost tone-on-tone embossed outline. I embossed two of these floral panels in this way: one to use as a background and one to die cut to use as accents for another card!

Before die cutting one of the panels, I used the coordinating stencils with Waterfall, Turquoise, and Paradise inks to add some beautiful monochromatic details to the floral images. After I had finished blending, I used the fabulous one-pass die to die cut all of the flowers in one fell swoop. So convenient!

For my first card, I created a beautifully textured background by pressing the floral bouquet into some more of the lovely pale aqua cardstock. To achieve the textured letterpress look on colored cardstock, I tried a technique that I saw the incredibly talented Carissa Wiley demonstrate. I placed a piece of letterpress paper behind my A2 panel of colored cardstock and used some light washi tape to temporarily adhere the two pieces together. I then used my Better Press system to impress the beautiful bouquet from the new Always Smiling product suite into the corners of my panel. The thick cotton letter press cardstock allows the cushion for the Press Plate to impress the images into the regular colored cardstock! Isn’t that ingenious? Carissa is amazingly clever! After removing the washi tape and letterpress panel, I used a blending brush to blend Turquoise ink around the edges of the panel, enhancing the beautifully detailed letter press images.

To further enhance my card front, I die cut the largest frame from the new Dotted Fancy Frames Essentials die set, placing it in the center of an A2 sized panel of Pinkfresh Studio Aqua Glitter Cardstock. I reserved the die cut frame itself for the next project and instead used foam adhesive to pop up the negative space around the edges of my textured background panel, creating a tone-on-tone glittery shaped frame. I tucked a vellum Dotted Fancy Frame die cut on the bottom right corner of the card and arranged my stenciled Print Shop Modern Botanicals die cuts around a greeting from the Always Smiling Press Plate set, which I foiled onto some more aqua cardstock using Spellbinders’s Skybright foil and die cut with the coordinating die. Finally, I embellished my bouquet with some shiny foil “twine” cut using the older Wrap Around Elements dies and added a few coordinating Aqua Glitter Drops for added sparkle!

My second card is a bit simpler, using some of the leftovers from my first project to create this dainty, monochromatic card. I embellished the full A2 embossed and stenciled Print Shop Modern Botanicals background panel with the leftover Aqua Glitter Dotted Fancy Frames Essentials die cut, adhering it around the edges of the background with some liquid adhesive. I think it is such a pretty addition to the subtle floral background! I also used the smallest die from the Dotted Fancy Frames Essentials die set to cut a piece of vellum, upon which I would build my focal point.

For my focal point, I hot foiled my greeting from the new Blooming Arch Press Plate set, which I created by first hot foiling the sentiment Press Plate, then hot foiling the leftover foil panel using Pinkfresh Studio’s Solid Hot Foil Plate and cutting with the coordinating die. (It looks black in the photo because hot foiled images are so difficult to photograph accurately, but I promise the sentiment is a coordinating pale aqua!) I popped up the sentiment in the center of the vellum piece using foam adhesive, then arranged some leftover Print Shop Modern Botanicals die cuts behind the sentiment. I flipped over the vellum piece and added some thin foam square adhesive behind the solid die cuts in order to keep my vellum piece clean. Finally, I added a few more Aqua Glitter Drops for added 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 be 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 along the hop, the more chances you have to win!.
Winners will be selected and announced on October 16, 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!

Pinkfresh Studio February 2023 Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release Blog Hop+Giveaway!

February 27, 2023

Hi there! Happy Monday! Today, we are celebrating the new February 2023 release over at Pinkfresh Studio with a blog hop full of tons of inspiration and prizes. The new release has so many beautiful new stamps and dies, some of which coordinate with previously-released sets, such as the new Circle Florals Stamps and Dies, which coordinate perfectly with the previously-released Nested Circles Hot Foil Plate and Dies. Let’s get started with the details on my project!

I began by stamping the main floral images from the new Circle Florals Stamps set onto some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper using some no-line coloring ink. I then used my Daniel Smith watercolors to do some no-line watercoloring, keeping the flowers a lovely shade of magenta and adding a beautiful jade green to the foliage. Because these images were a bit small, I used a Silver Black Velvet number 4 round brush with a nice sharp point, keeping kept the wet sections away from each other to make sure that I was able to keep the definition of each image nice and crisp. After I had finished watercoloring, I used the coordinating dies to cut out the finished floral swags.

I love the look of hand-lettered watercoloring, and I wanted to try to recreate that look using the sentiment stencils that are included in the Circle Florals coordinating stencil set. In addition to the layering stencils for the stamped floral images, you also receive some super useful little “extras,” like a circle that is sized to coordinate perfectly with the interior of the floral swags, as well as three different sentiments! I used one of the new small blending brushes to blend more no-line coloring ink on watercolor paper. I then used the same shade of magenta watercolor and that same small paintbrush with a nice crisp point to add watercolor to the script sentiment. I added a few little shadows around some of the curves with a darker maroon watercolor, adding the tiniest bit of dimension and interest to the sentiment, but I am absolutely in love with how this turned out and can’t wait to try it again with another sentiment! I die cut the finished greeting with the coordinating dies, as well.

I had foiled a circle frame using the Nested Circles Hot Foil Plate and Dies and some Satin Metallic Pewter hot foil from Spellbinders. I backed the open circle frame with some vellum to give me a base upon which to adhere my greeting. I ran an A2 panel of white cardstock through my die cut machine with the Dotted Scallops cover plate, creating some super subtle and elegant texture for the background of my card. I popped up the foiled-and-vellum circle frame with some foam adhesive, orienting it to the side and trimming off the overhang. I then arranged my die cut watercolored florals around the foiled frame, cutting one of the swags in half and allowing it to peek over the side, then tucking the leftovers behind the full swag, using a double and single layer of foam tape for the flowers for lots of height. I also die cut a few standalone leaves using some iridescent white mirror cardstock and the Curvy Leaves dies, tucking them here and there amongst my floral swag. The final touch was to add a few Leaf Glitter Drops for some more sparkle.

Well, that’s all for my project today. I love the look of these beautiful new Circle Florals… they remind me of a floral crown! Now for some fun giveaway information:

Pinkfresh Studio will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel. They will be also giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. The winners will be selected from the comments, so be sure to leave a comment on each blog hop stop for maximum entries!
Winners will be announced on March 8, 2023 on our GIVEAWAY PAGE. Winners must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks.

Here’s the full hop list:

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