Countdown to Confetti: October Mini Release Day 1

Oh boy...are you in for it today! I am so excited about the mini release Jen has come up with for October! These are some of my favorite stamps ever, I love the huge circles and countless possibilities for these sets and new dies! Today, half the team is showing you Round About, Round About Additions,  and the Envelope Wrap die, and the other half is sharing the new door hanger die! Are you ready to get started?

I've got a little duo to share today using the new Round About, Round About Additions, and the new Envelope Wrap die!

I didn't do it on purpose, but looking at the RC header, it sort of resembles that, doesn't it? LOL! 

For the card, I stamped various images in different colored inks. I cut them all out with circle nestabilities. I adhered them with dimensionals on the card base and then added some sequins and more bokah-style stamping on the white base. I mounted the whole white panel on a black card base. I added some white liquid dimensionals to the hearts and they are puffy and cute in real life!

How fabulous is this new Envelope Wrap? Jen is just a genious, I love the customization possibilities now for envelopes!! Maybe I'll actually send a card if the envelopes can be cute too? LOL!! The wrap is one large die. Here I'm showing the front only because I totally made a mess of the back of this envelope by laying it right in some wet paint. Ugh. But trust me, the back of the envelope *can* look as cute as the front, haha...I'm sure the other girls will have a back view to show you:)

Well that's it for today, make sure to check out what the rest of the team has come up with! Hop on over to the Reverse Confetti Blog for a list of girls playing along. I'll be back tomorrow with more, thanks for stopping by!

Verve Stamps Pink Power Spotlight Hop

Hello there! Are you surprised to find me back at my blogger blog? Not surprised, and knew I'd be back? Don't really care either way? LOLOL!! Well I'm back! I was quite unhappy with the other platform, it just didn't work for me on many levels, plus I had to pay for it...so it was a no-brainer to just come on back to my Blogger blog. It always feels right to come home;)

Today, I'm here with a card using the amazing new Pink Power stamp set from Verve. As you probably already know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Chiatali designed this set in honor of her Mother who is right now battling this disease. I don't personally know anyone fighting Breast Cancer, but I know that so many out there do. I think this stamp set is amazing and would be perfect for creating cards for your friend or family member fighting breast cancer.

I decided to use the beautiful butterflies in the stamp set for my card today. I embossed them in white on a piece of watercolor paper. Next, I ran a couple pink Tombow markers over the butterflies and then, with a wet, round paintbrush, moved the ink around. I just ADORE these markers and the fabulous watercolor effect I get with them. They are one of the best crafty investments I've made!

I stamped the little trail of stars in white and black ink around the butterflies and then applied some glue and chunky glitter. I found that glitter at Walmart for like 3 bucks and loved it when I saw it. It reminds me of bokah, and it's so shiny and gorgeous!

I spritzed a bit of pink Heidi Swapp Colorshine on a piece of cardsock and then cut the ribbon out with the Ribbon die from that pink misted cardstock. 

Want to win some shiny new Verve? One random winner of a $30 gift voucher to the Verve store will be drawn from the comments on the blogs linked below. So be sure to leave a little shout out in the comment box at each stop along the way to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for the scoop on prizes and today's featured products!

1. Julee 7. Charmaine 2. Stacey 8. Laurie 3. Marisa 9. Christyne 4. Chaitali 10. Teresa 5. Amber 11. Andrea 6. Jen

Mixed Media Mojo Challenge #1

Good morning (or afternoon or evening)!! I'm here today with a brand new challenge, Mixed Media Mojo! In the past couple months, I've gotten myself addicted to art journaling, mixed media, and acrylic painting. I think I can now say I've run through every craft there is, ha! But on a serious note, this latest obsession hobby is really making me feel good. I can't wait to get in my craft room and paint whenever I have a sliver of time (which, to be quite honest, I have a lot of at the moment). Anyway, not long ago, my friend Maria decided to start a Mixed Media challenge blog, as we couldn't find many out there on the web. Sometimes you just really want to create something but can't find a jumping point. That's what our blog is there for. Every month on the 1st we'll have a new challenge and you get a WHOLE month to play along. One thing I want to mention is that we've taylored our challenges so the beginner mixed media artist can play along. Card makers/scrapbookers--never fear. If I know you (and I think I do), you already have pretty much everything you'll need. The great thing about mixed media (to me) is that you don't have to use the latest and greatest supplies. Dig deep in that stash and see what things you have that you couldn't put on that card or scrapbook page. This is definitely the place to shop your own stash. I couldn't believe how many awesome things I found to put in my journals!  I'm not going to go into too much detail here about the mixed media process. Maria has quite a bit of good information on the blog already. At some time in the future I will most likely write a post about the supplies I use, but for now, refer to the blog!

SO, our first challenge is a super easy one. All you need are at least 2 stamps, and 2 different mediums! See, told you you already have what you need!

I created two projects for this challenge. One more "artsy" and then one in my inspiration art journal. First up is the larger piece, each page measuring about 9"x11"

The name of this piece is "Fire Inside"

I did my painting first and then added stencils, stamping, handwriting, and the india ink drips. I've also used some Dylusions spray inks and gesso.

The handwriting stamp is from Dina Wakely and the chevron stamp is from one of my Unity Stamp Co kits (no idea which one as I dumped them all together in a basket lol)

Click on the pictures for a larger view

Up next is a page I created after watching one of Christy Tomlinson's videos. I was so inspired by the scene she created that I wanted to make one of my own!

This one is called "In the Sun" and I think you'll see I was really pretty scrappy with this page. I used stamps, patterned paper, buttons, pearls, twine, ribbon, did a little sewing, and did some stenciling and of course painting! I used my Reverse Confetti Count your Rainbows stamp set as well as the Petals n' Posies dies and stamps. On Christy's project, hers had a banner, but once I added that sentiment I knew I needed to make that piece into a sun! I love how your process changes as you go:)

Well those are my projects, now it's YOUR TURN! I hope you can play along with us, we want to see your amazing work! Remember, this challenge is perfect for beginners so if you've never tried mixed media or you're still really new, please don't be afraid to play along :) There is a Linky Tool on the MMM blog and Maria has a PRIZE for one lucky player this month!

Verve Stamps May Release Blog Hop!

Have you heard? The new Verve stamps are now available! 

This card was so fun to put together! I created that background with my Gelatos and blended the colors together with baby wipes. I then embossed the flowers from Be Blessed in white ep. I cut two other flowers out of some of the scrap background paper with the Petal Points die set and embossed those in white also. I popped them up on dimensionals and layered them over the sentiment panel. The sentiments are from Wonderful Marvelous!

Next up is a fun card I made with the Be Blessed set.

I stamped the flowers from Be Blessed in aqua ink on the card base. The sentiment you see is actually one stamp, but I cut it up so I could use it in pieces, particularly that happy image. I love that I was able to create this fun gradient sentiment!!! I'm crazy about this stamp set:) I also busted out the Sprightly Sprigs dies and cut a couple of those out also and layered them around the sentiment. For a last touch, I added some sequins from the Shine Bright mix.

Want to win some shiny new Verve? We'll be picking a random commenter on one of the hop spots below to win today's featured products! So be sure to leave a little comment on all the blogs below to increase your chances! Check out the Verve Blog today for full set reveals and all the prize info and deadlines!  All of the stamps and dies you see previewed this week will be available in the Verve online store on Friday, May 23rd!

Your next stop on the hop is Maureen!!

1. Julee 8. Amber 2. Charmaine 9. Maureen 3. Marisa 10. Jen 4. Janelle 11. Laurie S. 5. Teresa 12. Andrea 6. Chaitali 13. Christyne 7. Stacey 14. Sarah

Verve Stamps May Release Spotlight Hops Day 1

Hello there! I'm so sorry my post is a couple hours late. I'm visiting family up in beautiful Montana and loving every minute of it :)

Today we're starting our May release spotlight hops and starting it off with a super cute set called Button Best!

For the green card panel, I cut a whole bunch of sprigs out with one of the new dies releasing this month, called Sprightly Sprigs. I love how it kind of looks like a coverplate! the flowers from Button Best were cut out with the new Petal Points die set and then I stamped and embossed the flowers with white EP. I stamped some of the buttons and then cut them out with my Spellbinders circle dies. The sentiment die was cut with the Flourish Trim die.

As I often do with sentiment stamps, I cut this one apart so I could stamp it in different colors. You could just mask off one word and stamp and then mask off the other word and stamp, but I've ruined so many cards by getting ink on a part I didn't mean to, that I just cut them if I can:) I'm crazy like that!

Since we LOVE to share our Verve, we've got a giveaway every day this week!  Just hop around to the blogs on today's hop and tell us what you think in the comments at each stop and you'll be entered in a drawing to win today's featured products!  Woohoo!

Next up is Maureen! , hop on over to see what she did with Button Best! 

Day 1 PRIZE: Button Best, Petal Points Die Set and Proverbs 31:25 Plain Jane

Comment Deadline:  Monday, May 26 @ 5PM Mountain

1. Julee 8. Amber 2. Charmaine 9. Maureen 3. Marisa 10. Jen 4. Janelle 11. Andrea 5. Teresa 12. Christyne 6. Chaitali 13. Sarah 7. Stacey

Reverse Confetti May Release Blog Hop

Guess what??? Those new and beautiful Reverse Confetti stamps we've been peeking all week? Yeah. They're available NOW!!!!!!!!

We have had such a wonderful time celebrating our FIRST BIRTHDAY with all of you and sharing all of the fabulous sneak peeks for this month’s brand new release. We hope you’ve liked what you’ve seen so far! With 6 new stamp sets and 6 new Confetti Cuts Dies, there’s a lot of inspiration to be had. Today, since it’s the 8th of the month, the Confetti Crew, Challenge Crew and a few of our friends are excited to bring you a few more projects for our Reverse Confetti new release blog hop using all the latest RC products. Now’s the time to hop along with us and be sparked by the crafty goodness!

 You should have found my blog from the Reverse Confetti Blog. If not, it would be worth your while to go back and start THERE so you can see Jen's project as well as a complete list of the girls playing along. 

Allow me to introduce you to Hipster Ollie! *That's just my nickname for this particular image, his real name is Oliver Owl and he's very dignified I assure you:)*

Isn't he the CA-UTEST? I stamped him on kraft cardstock and then stamped him a couple other times on other patterned papers so I could piece together a dapper lil outfit for him. I also gave him some red glasses, cause red glasses are *awesome*

I added some Crystal Effects to the lenses to make them shiny like real lenses:) The stars were cut out with dies from Oh My Stars! and stamped with coordinating star stamps from Winning. You can also see I stamped the glasses on a diagonal on the card base, but the way my card went, it ended up covering most of that. Oh well, that's the way it happens sometimes:)

I hope you’ve enjoyed hopping with us today. Be sure and hop with us on the 8th of EVERY MONTH for more REVERSE CONFETTI inspiration! Now it’s time to hop on over to Daniela Dobson's blog! If you get lost along the way, you can find the hop order and list of all the participating designers over on the Reverse Confetti blog.

A few things before you hop along though, just to keep you “in the know”…

May’s SKETCH FOR YOU TO TRY is open for you to play along. Click the link for a chance to win. AND, be on the lookout for a NEW COLOR challenge we will be introducing on May 16th and another way to win!

Celebrate the creative side of you!

Reverse Confetti: Countdown to Confetti Day 3

Hello again! Welcome to Day 3 of our countdown sneak peeks! Hope you've been loving everything so far, such a fun release! Also, are you taking advantage of the opportunities to win? Go to the Reverse Confetti Blog for details, this is a good release to win;)

Today we're peeking the last two sets, Let's Chill and Here We Go!

Here's my first card using the sweet Let's Chill~

I used my Distress Markers and water to create the watercolor background and then used a stencil to paint in the white "splats". As you can see, this new set has a companion Confetti Cuts making it even easier to use! I just love the invention of wafer thin dies *happy sigh* I cut the popsicles and sticks out and then stamped them with the coordinating stamps. I cut out a giant heart with my nestabilities and popped the popsicles up on dimensionals. I added the whole this to my card base and then added the heart from the Love Note Confetti Cuts, and a button/twine. I seriously love the sentiments int this set too!!

Next up is a card using the new Here We Go!

GAH! Can you stand the cuteness that is these airplanes??? I love them! I cut three airplanes out with the coordinating Here We Go Confetti Cuts in blue, red, and gray. I die cut some clouds (from MFT) and popped some up on dimensionals and left some flat. The two small clouds I added some puffy paint to to make them puffy like clouds are supposed to be!:)

Next I added the sentiments and the cute little trail behind the planes:)

Okay that's it for me today, now go on over to the RC Blog for more fun!! Thanks for stopping by today!