Saturday, 21 November 2015

Blogging elsewhere today...

Hey!

I thought I'd pop by today to let you know that I'm on the Altenew blog today focusing on the fabulous Halftone Holidays stamp set. I adore the Halftone series of stamps – they're so clever with their oh-so-easy-to-achieve ombré effects. Simply ink up the stamps et voila! Ombré, baby!

Sneak peek

I'm sharing three cards I've made featuring this stamp set over on my blog post. It would be lovely to see you there if you're interested in taking a peek at the rest of the my cards. I can promise a traditional Christmas colour combo, sparkles and clean designs. :)

Happy weekend!

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Friday, 20 November 2015

Altenew & Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog hop!

'tis the season
Hey!

Happy Friday! I'm kicking off the weekend here with a wintry card as part of a fun blog hop as Altenew teams up with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L.


You should have hopped along here from Stephanie Schutze. If you haven't then be sure to start out at Altenew HQ as there's prizes to be won along the way!

The people at Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L kindly sent us some super-sticky goodies to play with and I immediately fell for these cool 3D Foam Snowflakes. All they need is a sprinkle of glitter to bring them to life!

'tis the season close up

I paired a snowflake with a sentiment from Altenew's new Halftone Holidays stamp set to complete this simple, easy design. It's definitely my kind of design when it comes to Christmas cards: quick and easy with a touch of sparkle. :)

As part of the blog hop, Altenew are also offering FREE U.S shipping on retail orders placed today (November 20th). Simply enter the code 'ALTENEWFRIDAY' at the checkout.

Right, I best not keep you as there's some serious blog hopping to be done. Both Altenew and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L are giving away prizes with two $30 Altenew gift certificates and two prize packs both worth $30 each. A winner will be selected from the comments left on the blog hop so be sure to leave yours by Monday November 23 11.59pm EST and the winners will be announced the the Altenew blog and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L blog on November 25th.

Next on your hopping list is Michele Kovack. Happy hopping and have a happy weekend!

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Saturday, 14 November 2015

25 Days of Christmas Tags!

Tag
Hey!

Happy weekend! I'm joining in with the fabulous 25 Days of Christmas Tags event today and representing Clearly Besotted with today's super-quick (minus drying time for Glossy Accents!) tag.

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It's the fifth anniversary of this fantastic idea of Tracey McNeely's which showcases 25 days of wonderful tags with a whole host of companies sponsoring the event and plenty of prizes to be won. Check out the full deets here.

xoxo

My little tag was originally created for Christmas, but I guess it could actually be used all year round. It's a tag for all seasons! I decided to keep things small, simple and sweet for my tag so I used the new Tiny Tags Die Collection and paired the stitched heart from the Stitched Mittens stamp set with a sentiment from the From Our Home stamp set. It's a real mix 'n' match of Clearly Besotted goodies!

I couldn't resist giving the heart on my tag the Glossy Accents treatment. I love shiny things! :)

xoxo-close-up

Don't forget to check out the tags from the rest of the Clearly Besotted peeps over at Tracey's; I've had a sneak peek and they're stunning (I'd expect nothing less!). Don't forget, there's prizes to be won too. :)

Time for me to scoot now. I've got a mountain of things to do this weekend and speaking of weekends, did you know that there's only six weekends left until Christmas. Crazy! I better get a move on and get myself organised. Eeek!

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

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Friday, 13 November 2015

Altenew November release blog hop!


Hey!

Happy Friday! It's more than your average Friday here as I'm jumping on board for a good ol' blog hop to showcase Altenew's brand-new November release! It's an amazing release full of fantastic goodies with 10 stunning stamp sets and six new Altenew Speciality Papers. You can check out the full release here. 

So with this being a blog hop, you should have hopped here from my talented friend, Aga. If you haven't, then be sure to start out at the start of the blog hop at Altenew HQ as there's not only inspirational projects, there's prizes to be won too! :)

For my blog hop cards I've focused on a few different sets and mix and matched a few too;  I always like to stretch my stamp sets to the max and get as much use from them as possible.

First up, here's a card featuring the new Succulents stamp set. I love how this set can cater for any green fingered friend and the sentiments are fab too, they certainly fill a gap in my sentiment stamp stash.

Thank you

This card is simple but took a while to create and required a lot of patience. I treated this succulent to the Glossy Accents treatment and somehow managed to resist the temptation to touch the shiny goodness until I could be sure that it had dried.

Thank you close up

To add little more dimension to the Glossy Accents treatment, I coated each area of the succulent separately rather than cover the whole thing in one go. :)

My next cards features the stunning Oriental Orchid stamp set designed by May Sukyong Park for Altenew.

So beautiful

This set is beautiful and I love that it contains not only the multi layer style of stamps to achieve detailed orchids, it also features fabulous sentiments in a gorgeous brush font. I love it.

I created a background/patterned paper effect with the orchids on my previous card, so I then decided to use the stem from the set to create another pattern for this card:

You got this

I also used a masking technique to stamp the pretty flowers from the new Beautiful Lady stamp set and paired it with a sentiment from the oh-so-useful Thinking of You stamp set. Three stamp sets on one card – I think that could be a record for me!

So? Do you have a favourite must-have set from the new release? If you do then be sure to comment on this post as I have a $30 Altenew gift certificate to give away! Please leave a comment on this post before 11:59pm GMT on Sunday 15th November to be in with a chance of winning it and I'll announce the winner here on the following day.

Right, that's all from me for today so I'll let you hop along. Your next stop is the amazing Marika Rahtu. 

Thanks so much for hopping by today. Have a great weekend!

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Thursday, 5 November 2015

Beautiful birch backgrounds

Just for you
Hey!

Well today's the day! It's time to get the fireworks out not only to prepare for Bonfire Night, but to celebrate Clearly Besotted's November release that's available to purchase from 10pm GMT tonight!

As promised, I've to two cards for today's post and I'm showing you two very different looks you can achieve with the beautiful Birch Background and Birch Background II stamps. I love that there's both a portrait and landscape set of this design; I honestly wouldn't be able to pick just one!

First up is a very bold design featuring some multicoloured heat-embossing. It's super-sparkly up close but it's pretty hard to capture on a picture. I paired this simple design with a sentiment from Sweet Sentiments Plus. So easy!

My next card is much softer and subtle with icy wintry blues and some heat-embossing onto vellum:

heartfelt thanks

I would like to have used silver embossing powder for the sentiment to complement the icy, crisp blue and white combo but it's decided to hide from me and I can't find it anywhere! Note to self: buy more silver embossing powder so the original pot will turn up. ;)

Well that's all from me and all of the sneak peeks of the November release. Stephanie will be sharing the sets in full along with links to some final projects from the Design Team so pop across and get ready to make your shopping list for when the new goodies are available to purchase from 10pm GMT tonight!

Happy shopping, and for those celebrating it, have a happy and safe Bonfire Night!

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Wednesday, 4 November 2015

An SD card, a washing machine & a delayed post...

kisses & cuddles
Hey!

Happy November! I'm certainly happy today as I'm finally able to join in the fun of the Clearly Besotted sneak peeks of the November release. The delay has been down to my own doofus moment of accidentally putting my SD card through the washing machine...We won't speak of it anymore but my replacement has arrived so I can finally shoot the projects I've made – hurrah!

So doofus moment aside, today's card gives you a sneak peek of two sets: the adorable squirrels from 'Nutty but Nice' pair perfectly with a sentiment from 'Petite Plushies'. I just think that this sentiment is so fitting for those cute squirrels and loved the idea of them looking out into the sunset. :)

kisses & cuddles close

Well I'm sure you've all been enjoying the plethora of sneak peeks at CB HQ with links to even more peeks from the rest of the Design Team, but if you haven't then be sure to pop across now. You won't be disappointed! We even have the super Yoonsun Hur on board with us as a guestie this month so you won't want to miss out!

I'll be back tomorrow with not one, but two cards to make up and catch up on a sneaky peek day that I've missed. I'll be making sure my new SD cards stays away from the washing machine in the future to avoid this happening again, promise!

Thanks so much for visiting today!


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Copyright/Disclosure

I am on various design teams and receive free product to use and promote. I geniunely love the products of the companies and all opinons are honest and my own.

I'm flattered if I've inspired you and you want to CASE anything of mine, but please don't enter it for commercial publications or competitions.
Thank You!
All designs, text, and photographs on Crafting Confessions are ©2009-2016 to Amy Gray unless stated otherwise.