Altenew & Tombow USA collaboration blog hop

Hey!

Happy Friday! I'm joining in the fun of a special collaboration blog hop as Altenew joins forces with Tombow USA! You should have hopped across here from Beth Watson. If you haven't, then be sure to start out at the Tombow USA blog to join in the fun. :)

Tombow USA kindly sent me their fabulous Bright 10-pen set of Dual Brush markers to play with and I had a blast discovering their properties, especially when combined with water! I paired the markers with Altenew's Sketchy Cities America 2 stamp set to create this card:

The sunset background was created by heat-embossing the cityscape onto watercolour paper then scribbling red, orange and yellow markers on top and blending them with a wet paintbrush. Easy peasy! I simply added a stamped sentiment and strips of corresponding glitter tape across the top and bottom of the scene then secured it onto a card front.

Now a blog hop wouldn't be a blog hop without prizes, right? Be sure to comment on the blogs along the hop as there are two $30 Tombow USA and two $30 Altenew gift certificates up for grabs. Winners will be picked randomly from comments left on the blogs by June 3rd and announced on the Altenew Blog and Tombow USA blog on Saturday June 4th. :)

Well that's all from me today, so it's time to hop along. Next on your hopping adventure is the talented, Anna Kossakovskaya!

Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Altenew May 2016 release blog hop winner!

Hey!

Happy Friday Eve! I'm popping in today to announce the randomly selected winner from my Altenew May 2016 blog hop post last week. So, without further ado, the winner is Angelique Vela who said:

Angelique Vela said...

Love how sophisticated & trendy your cards are. I also love how with some minor tweaks both can be made appropriately masculine.

14 MAY 2016 AT 20:53 

Congratulations, Angelique! You've just won yourself a $30 Altenew gift certificate! Please email winner@altenew.com with the subject line 'May Release Blog Hop Winner from Amy's Blog' to claim it. Happy shopping!

Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun of the blog hop last week! Fear not if you're not a winner here, as even more winners from the blog hop will be announced on the Altenew blog tomorrow and I'll also be over there sharing some more projects from this month's amazing release. I hope you can join me!

Altenew May 2016 Blog Hop!

Hey!

Wa-hooooo for Friday! I'm here today as part of the wonderful Altenew May 2016 blog hop to celebrate the new release of an amazing 16 stamp sets and 10 die sets! You should have arrived here from the talented, Aga. If you haven't then be sure to start out on the blog hop at Altenew HQ!

I've whipped up two cards to celebrate the release using four new stamp sets. If you're a regular here then you'll know that I love to combine stamp sets to make the most of them. :)

First up is a card featuring the new Painted Rose and Calligraphy Alpha stamp sets:

I'm a huge fan of the layered stamp sets and the brush style of this set will have you stamping on-trend watercolour-style projects with ease! I originally sat down to play with the stunning rose from this set, but I sat playing with the leaves and before I knew it, I'd created a background.

So all this card needed was a sentiment and I turned to the Calligraphy Alpha stamp set which I absolutely LOVE! Trendy customised calligraphy sentiments are now at my inky disposal! :)

My next card features the fun stamp sets, Say Cheese and From the Desk of; two more stamp sets that have quickly become firm favourites of mine:

I adore the mix-and-match elements of the Say Cheese stamp set. The hardest part about this card was choosing which style camera to stamp! I couldn't resist those polka dots.

I then heat-embossed an arrow and hearts as trendy accents to the design. I  love the sketchy nature of them from the From the Desk of stamp set.

PRIZES! 
Right, there's some serious blog hopping to be done today and prizes along the way. To celebrate the release Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to THREE lucky winners! Leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Thursday May 19th 11:59pm EST for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on Friday May 20th.

I'm also joining in the celebrations and have a $30 gift certificate up for grabs! Simply leave a comment on this post by Wednesday May 18th 11:59pm EST to be in with a chance of winning it and I'll randomly select and announce a winner on Thursday May 19th. :)

That's all from me today, thanks so much for stopping by! Next on your hopping adventure is Anna Kossakovskaya. Happy hopping!

A superstar sentiment...

Hey!

Happy Friday Eve! It's a super-happy day as Clearly Besotted's May release is available to purchase from 10pm UK time tonight! :D

I'm back today with one final project to celebrate the release and I couldn't resist inking up this stylish sentiment from the 'To You With Love' stamp set. You'll see that I've already inked up the stunning flower from this set on this card, so now it's time to let the sentiment of the set steal the spotlight!

The font of this sentiment had me wanting to embrace the fun chalkboard technique that was extremely popular a while back. I remember the craze kicking off from Betsy Veldman and was instantly taken with it then as I am now. You could take this one step further and even add colour to it, but I decided that colour wasn't required for this sentiment to shine. :)

As this sentiment is the main focal point, I kept the rest of the design pretty simple (no surprises there!) and added some touches of gold in the form of gold glitter Washi tape, a mini peg covered with the same Washi tape and some gorgeous gold foiled paper from the My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 paper pad. Black and gold: a classic, sophisticated colour combo I don't' think I'll ever tire of!

If you're not already come across here from Stephanie's, then what are you waiting for? Stephanie has the full reveal of the release for you to admire as well as the final projects from the rest of the super-talented Design Team so be sure to check it out! :)

Thanks so much for joining me this week for the sneak peeks of the new release. If you're busy shopping at Clearly Besotted tonight, I hope you manage to tick everything off your list!

One card, three stamp sets...

Hey!

I'm back again with yet another sneak peek of the Clearly Besotted May release! If you missed yesterday's sneak peek, click here. Remember that all of the new goodies will be available to purchase from 5th May (tomorrow!) at 10pm UK time. :)

Today's card is my attempt to try and make up for the fact that I'm a day behind on my fellow teamies in sharing the new release by using not one, not two, but three new stamp sets on one card! Where are they, you ask? Well take a closer look at the focal point and you might just spot them all. :)

The sentiment is from the 'Mr & Mrs Hoot' stamp set and I've added detail to the die-cut heart by stamping the flowers from the 'To You With Love' stamp set (seriously, I can't get enough of that set!) and some hearts from the 'Just The Two Of Us' stamp set using a tone-on-tone ink. I then stamped those beautiful flowers onto a square of white cardstock and aligned the flowers on the heart with them to add a little more interest to the design.

This card is accompanying us our friend's wedding this Saturday where Mr Gray is the Best Man. The yellow twine bow has been added as yellow is one of the main colours of the big day. There's absolutely no reason for the gorgeous My Mind's Eye mint and gold polka dot foiled paper other than I'm absolutely smitten with it – a special paper for a special card! Well that and I've just realised that the dress I plan to wear is this shade of mint too so I must have been thinking about it at the time of creating this. Maybe I need to add some gold polka dots to it before Saturday? :D

Well that's enough pondering and babbling from me today. If you haven't already seen the plethora of sneak peeks Stephanie has in store for you today, then be sure to visit! As always, she's sharing links to the rest of the Design Team featuring even more sneak peeks.

I'll be back tomorrow to celebrate release day with one more card. I hope you can join me!

Clearly Besotted May sneak peeks...

Hey!

Happy Tuesday! It's back to work for me today after the extended bank holiday. It was a bit of soggy one here, but that gave me the perfect excuse create with Clearly Besotted's May release to give you some sneak peeks before the full release is available to purchase from 5th May at 10pm (UK time). :)

Today's card gives you a sneak peek of the beautiful, 'To You With Love' stamp set. I gravitated towards this set as soon as I laid my eyes up on it! I always say that Clearly Besotted do the most fabulous floral stamp sets and this is set is of no exception!

I'd normally go ahead and heat-emboss this image and colour it in, but I fancied doing something a little different so opted for the no-line colouring technique. I'm no artist (just check out Keren's or Debby's take on this flower to see how a real artist does this set justice) but I had fun stamping the image in Desert Sand Memento ink and colouring it with all of my three pink and three green Copics (I really want more!) I added a few highlights with a white gel pen and paired the image with some yummy papers from the My Mind's Eye On Trend 2 paper pad.

The heat-embossed sentiment comes with the stamp set too and I couldn't resist adding some of Lucy's pretty sequins and a BoBunny clip to the design. I'm going to admit that it pained me to affix the layers onto the card front at angles, but I'm hoping it adds a bit of fun to the finished design. :)

This month we have the fabulous Taheerah Atchia, Anita Bowden, Vanessa Amann and Yoonsun Hur joining us as guesties! I'm also absolutely thrilled that we have my talented friend, Keren Baker, joining our Design Team! Pop across to their blogs to get your mojo fix – and while you're at it, hop across to Stephanie's for more sneak peeks and links to the rest of the Design Team sharing more jaw-dropping creations!