A die to die for...

Hey!

It's the weekend - yay! Murray is through to the fourth round at Wimbledon - woo hoo! Oh, and it's time for a fabulous blog hop, Uniko Studio stylee too - hurrah! Ha!

Gonna keep it short and sweet to let the hopping commence (you should have stared at the Uniko Studio blog). 

I decided to play with the awesome new dies for Pure Florals: Chrysanthemum Collection. Yup, no more insane fussy cutting when it comes to those pretty chrysanthemums! I decided for my blog hop card to use the negative of the die cut. I stamped and embossed the corresponding chrysanthemum on vellum and placed it behind.

• Die cut the aperture before impressing a pattern over the front of your cardstock. In other words, make sure the last run through your die-cutting machine is the impressing of that pattern because if you need to run it though again for whatever reason, it can flatten the dimension of the impression.
• Don't place the vellum behind the aperture until the card has been through the die-cutting machine for the last time. You don't want to risk damaging that pretty embossed image on the vellum!
• Lightly sketch a flower stem in pencil, and go over it with an alcohol marker. You can then rub out the pencil lines with no smudging after! Also, be sure to do this step before impressing that pattern on the card front!

Now don't delay, there's hopping to be done and prizes to be won (including the whole June release!). Your next stop is Erika.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a fabulous weekend and happy hopping! :)









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Summer Card Camp 2 Winner

Hey!

I'm popping in super quick to announce the winner of the Online Card Class - Summer Card Camp 2 givewaway.

The randomly selected winner is...

Comment number 16 which means that Tammy J is the lucky winner who said:

Congrats, Tammy! You're camping Online Card Class stylee for free! Be sure to pop an email my way and we'll get your spot in class sorted (see the 'contact me' tab above for my email addy)

Thanks to everyone who entered and left such lovely comments about the class. It's going to be a fabulous class. Be sure to check out the other guest artists around Blogland as they too are giving away free places on the class. Keep up to date on the giveaways and general Online Card Class news via the Online Card Class FB Page and Twitter! :)

Camping...Online Card Class stylee!

 

Hey!

Happy Monday! Let's make it a super-duper happy Monday here on the blogeroo with a little giveaway. How does that sound? Good?

Well although I'm counting down the weeks until classes finish for summer, I'm also counting down the weeks/days until class actually starts too. Online Card Class styleee of course! Yup, it's time to pack up for Summer Card Camp 2. Here's a bit of info, but for full deets click here!

Join your Online Card Classes Summer Camp counselors—Kristina Werner, Jennifer McGuire, and friends (including me!)—for a three-week adventure packed with cardmaking ideas! Each day, you’ll discover a new way to have fun with your cardmaking supplies, whether we’re exploring a color combo, transforming a design sketch, or learning a new technique together. Summer Card Camp 2 includes designs from over 40 guest artists (yay!), lively videos, PDFs containing step-by-step instructions, shopping discounts, and loads of giveaways! Plus, you’ll have lifetime access to all of the class content—talk about making that summertime feeling last! Summer Card Camp 2 runs July 8-29. Sign up now for only $35!

I'm beyond honoured and soooooooo excitied to be a featured artist for the class, (the picture above is a sneaky peek at my project) and I have a space to giveaway! Trust me, this class is set to be awesome!  So leave a comment here before June 25th 10pm (BST) and I'll randomly pick a peep to win the spot! :)

Good luck!

More sequins... :)

Hey!

Hip hip hooray! It's time for a blog hop, Uniko Studio style! Today marks the official release of some fabulous new goodies and a chance to win some prizes whilst you hop too!

Available in store now are the following stamp sets:

• Accent Essentials: Arrows
• All Occasion Sentiments #2
• Background Builders: Chevrons
• Beautiful Blooms I
• Flower Power #2
• Nature's Treasures I

And in addition to the stamps, there's an addition to the Designer Dies range too:

• Pure Florals: Chrysanthemum Designer Die

Phew! What a release! For my blog hop card I played with Beautiful Blooms I, Background Builders: Chevrons, and All Occasion Sentiments #2 (with an additional 'BIRTHDAY' stamp from Fontiments - Birthday).

I won't babble too much as the card is pretty self-explanatory and there's hopping to be done. But I will give you a few tips if you wanna check 'em out:

• To reduce the risk of embossing powder sticking to unwanted areas - do all of your embossing first! 
• If you want a duller tone to your inks, try stamping on kraft. My bright red ink turned to a darker tone on kraft and I outlined the flower with a white gel pen. The white gel pen makes the flower 'pop' a little more too. :)
• I used a distress ink on my cardbase to add a bit of contrast against the kraft focal point. Super simple but makes a real difference.

Be sure to comment with the hopping as there's a £25 Uniko Studio gift certificate hidden on one of our blogs. And be sure to check out the Uniko Studio blog if you haven't already as there's a chance to win the entire release!

Next on the hopping list is my DT buddy Erika, but if you get lost then here's the map!

Uniko Studio Blog
Amy (You're here!)
Erika
Stacey
Taheerah
Jen Nelson (Guest DT)

Happy hopping! :)

 





Products Used
(Newly released Uniko Studio goodies will be added later - this post has been scheduled!) 

InLinkz.com

Sequins: The new buttons?

Hey!

Happy Monday! It's not your typical Monday today, well not over at Clearly Besotted Stamps as today sees the launch of a new, fun monthly challenge! :D

The Clearly Besotted Challenge will run on every 10th of the month and will mean you get a chance to join in some fun, and maybe win yourself some CBS goodies too!

This month's challenge is an easy one. Anything goes! Yup, really, anything goes. Just use those CBS stamps and create something! And you're really not gonna want to miss out on this first challenge as one randomly selected peep will win five CBS stamp sets of their choice! You heard me right - F.I.V.E! :D

I've been itching to ink up Cute & Cuddly since it landed on my desk. Initially, I wanted to colour those cute animals, but I also wanted to show how you don't need to be a colouring expert to get the most from these stamps. And pairing this set up with Baby Love just seemed so right. I love the soft grey and pastel blue to celebrate a baby boy.

• I used a simple masking technique for this card. Whenever I get a set with images that I know I'll be using a masking technique with, the first thing I do is stamp them all on sticky-notes, trim them out, and keep them with the set. Then I can mask whenever I please with ease! :) 
• This design could so easily be changed to suit a girl - just change the blue to pink. Or if you want to keep it gender neutral - I'm a real fan of crisp white or the traditional yellow.
• I used a cool border punch at the top of my ledger panel to create a note-book style focal point. If you punch before you stamp, you'll find it easy to keep the design evenly spaced across the top.

Oh, and did you spot them? The sequins? Yup, I'm on that bandwagon now as well. Ha! I'd normally use buttons on a baby card, but I like the sparkle of the sequins way more :)

So, wanna win FIVE CBS stamp sets of your choice? To participate, your project must feature some CBS goodness on it somewhere - that's the only requirement. You've got until Sunday June 23rd to enter and if you'd like to be a guest designer then there's a chance for that too! So get those CBS stamps out, ink 'em up, and join us!

Products Used

InLinkz.com

A bright birthday...

Hey!

It's a busy week here on the blogeroo as it's also release time over at Uniko Studio. Today's card features some inky love for Essential Arrows and All Occasion Sentimens #2

There's a cool elongated triangle stamp in the Essential Arrows set that is soooooooo versatile. I kept it pretty simple on this card and stamped a tessellating pattern with it in pink and yellow ink. I added a couple of arrows from the set to lead your eyes to the sentiment. I love the funky nature of those arrows! :)

• Keep scraps from other projects within easy reach on your desk. That star is a random die cut I had that was just waiting for its moment to shine on a project. :)
• When stamping a pattern in two inks, it saves time to do all the stamping in one colour first (no need to clean your stamp after every impression). So for this card I stamped all the pink triangles first, cleaned my stamp and then stamped all of the yellow triangles.

All of the new goodies will be available from June 11th so be sure to check 'em out!

That's all from me today. Gotta keep it short and sweet. Thanks for stopping by today!



Rain or Shine...

Hey!

Happy Tuesday :)

Now I really hope I'm not tempting fate with today's card. You see we have some glorious summer-style weather here in Sheffield and I have to go and post a card that features an umbrella and raindrops - ha! Still, a card very typical of a British summer methinks; let's focus on the 'shine' part of that sentiment eh? *wink*

Enough about the weather, let me tell you a bit about this card: Clearly Besotted Stamps are ready to hit you with another fantastic release come June 6th and the DT are giving you some sneaky peeks. I couldn't resist inking up the sweet set, April Showers (don't you just love that font?!). It game me the perfect excuse to *finally* use my Memory Box raindrops die too :)

I said we should focus on the 'shine' element of the sentiment. I did just that on the umbrella too with a good dollop of Glossy Accents on a little paper-punched heart :)

• The orginal die used is actually much longer than the section I used on this card. To partially use a section of a die, I lay the section that I don't want to cut hanging out of my cutting sandwich (I'm talking die cutting machine sandwiches here, not your regular yummy sandwiches!)
• Add embellishments to images to emphasise to your focal point. A simple punched heart covered in Glossy Accents not only makes that umbrella a little more interesting, it also echoes the sentiment too.
• Save your scraps of pretty paper - they're perfect for paper piecing!

Be sure to pop across to see Stephanie if you haven't already - you'll be left counting down the minutes and seconds until release day I'm sure!

As always, and I really do mean this, thank you sooooooo much for checking out my creation today - I really appreciate your visits.




 



Products Used

InLinkz.com