Altenew & WOW! Embossing Powder blog hop!

Hey!

Happy Friday Eve! I'm delighted to be a part of a fabulous blog hop today as Altenew have joined forces with WOW! Embossing Powder.

You should have arrived here from Martha Lucia Gomez but don't worry if you haven't, you can start out at Altenew HQ. It's certainly worth hopping along as there's prizes to be won from both Altenew and WOW! :)

For my card, I decided to experiment with a technique I was fascinated by when I was starting out on my stamping adventure: triple heat-embossing. It's an old technique but it was certainly fun to revisit. I applied Altenew Lavender Fields ink onto a piece of Stampbord I dug out from my ancient stash then embossed layer upon layer of WOW! clear embossing powder on top. After my final layer, I pressed the flower stamp from Altenew's Striped Florals stamp set, inked up with VersaMark, into the molten embossing powder and allowed the piece to cool down before carefully removing the stamp to reveal the impressed pattern. A  dusting of gold Perfect Pearls highlights the impressed pattern for that extra finishing touch.

That's all from me for this blog hop. I don't want to keep you too long as there's plenty of hopping to be done! Before you hop on though, it's worth commenting as there's two $30 gift certificates from WOW! and two $30 Altenew gift certificates up for grabs. Winners will be picked from comments along the blog hop and all comments must be left by 28th February to be eligible to win. Winners will be announced on the Altenew blog and WOW! blog on Monday 29th February.

Right. Time for you to get hopping! Next on the blog hop is Sarah Jackaman Read. Happy hopping and have a fabulous weekend!

Felt, fuzzy hugs

Hey!

Happy Friday! I'm back today as promised with another card featuring the Springtime Shapes die set and Pattern Swatches stamp set from the exclusive Simon Says Stamp (SSS) Reason to Smile release. :)

Yesterday I turned an egg and carrot die into a sun, and today I'm turning a carrot top into a flower. complete with petals. I decided to try the dies with felt and it die-cut like a hot knife through butter. Perfect! I love the fuzzy, warming texture that felt can bring to a project. By coincidence, I've spotted that SSS have included sheets of felt as part of their new release so maybe we were thinking along the same lines with die-cutting felt - ha!

The sentiment comes from SSS's Best Hugs stamp set which is quickly becoming my go-to set for fabulous mix-and-match sentiments.

• The flower was created by die-cutting carrot tops from blue and green felt. I then kept the blue die-cut shape as it was and cut up the green die-cut shape to create two petals. 
• To add a bit more dimension to my felt die-cut shapes, I lightly added detail onto them using Copic markers. It makes so much difference! 
• Yesterday I used the Pattern Swatches stamp set to add detail onto die-cut shapes, but each stamp works beautifully as a background for a focal point; you've got your pick of six different patterns to choose from with this set!

I believe that there's an amazing blog hop on today to celebrate the Reason to Smile release so I recommend hopping along with it for a serious mojo boost. :D

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful weekend!

Egg + Carrot = Sunshine

Hey!

Happy Friday Eve! I'm sure that's a reason enough to smile, but today I'm sharing another one: The fabulous Simon Says Stamp (SSS) have their exclusive and brand-new Reason to Smile release available for purchase NOW! Check it all out here!

The kind peeps of SSS treated me and sent me a couple of goodies from the release to play with. I've had so much fun with the Springtime Shapes dies and the Pattern Swatches stamp set. These products are available to purchase both separately or as a combo here. I decided to use both of these goodies together in a little unconventional way to show you just how you can stretch these yummy products.

Today's card shows you how an egg and carrot die can be transformed into a sunshine. Not only that, but a fun patterned sunshine thanks to the Pattern Swatches stamp set with Sunshine and Duckling SSS ink.

The sentiment is from SSS's Floral Bookmarking stamp set and I thought it was so fitting for the imagery. The heart is actually a small one from the SSS Stacked Hearts die. I've managed to squeeze a lot of SSS stash on this card LOL!

• The sky was created by blending blue Distress Inks onto white cardstock, flicking water onto it to 'bleach' it and then dabbing it with kitchen roll. I actually blending light blue Distress Ink on top of this to make the effect more subtle. 
• I decided to use two shades of yellow SSS ink and used the darker shade for the centre of the sun. This helps to draw the eye towards the centre, to the heart and then to follow the sentiment. 
• The sentiment stamp is right-aligned, but I didn't let that stop me using it for this central design. I simply stamped and heat-embossed each line of it separately. Easy! 
• You can stamp the pattern onto three carrots or sun rays in one go as the pattern swatch stamp is a larger square. It means you use less ink too - bonus!

I have another card using these two goodies to share with you tomorrow. I hope you can join me and in the meantime, why not take a peek at the full SSS Reason to Smile release here? It's amazing and I've got my eye on a few more items from the release that I think I need... ;)