Charity Blog Hop

Hey!

Happy Saturday and happy weekend! I'm here today to take part in a super-fun charity blog hop organised by Sandy Allnock! You should have hopped here from the talented Lisa Spangler, but if you haven't then be sure to start out at Sandy's blog for all the deets!

The idea behind this blog hop is to give to charity in the name of a loved one by purchasing a gift from the charity of our choice and create a project based on it. My charity of choice is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). I fell hook, line, and sinker for this beautiful mug of theirs:

I have a soft spot for wrens (and robins too!) as they remind me of my dear dad; he'd love to see them in the garden, so it's no surprise that this mug jumped into my online shopping basket. I dug out my Meadow Bird Memory Box die, a new Artsy Flower Parts stamp set from Simon Says Stamp and my beloved Label Love stamp set from Altenew to create this project inspired by it:

The bird has been paper-pieced from green and white cardstock as well as some peel and stick wood veneer from Seven Hills Crafts. I love how it adds a touch of texture to the bird and the fact that it's adhesive makes it super-easy to paper-piece with too. Bonus! :)

This mug and card will be popping to a dear crafty friend of mine  – I hope that they'll like it! As you can see, my project is a pretty literal take on the mug in both design and colours.

Getting creative and sending happy mail to a friend while donating to a good cause is a wonderful idea. I hope it inspires you to do the same too! There's even more fun to be had with this charitable blog hop as there's fab prizes up for grabs as well:

Simply leave a comment on the blogs for you chance to win one of these prizes from these generous companies. Comments need to be left by Wednesday 22nd March. The lucky winners will be announced on Sandy's blog on Thursday 23rd March. :)

Right, that's all from me today, but next on your hopping adventure is Jessica Frost-Ballas!

Felt, fuzzy hugs

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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

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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... ;)

Happy STAMPtember!

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Happy September, or should that be STAMPtember? I can't even believe that it's September already, but one things for sure: I'll celebrating September with some fabulous news goodies from Simon Says Stamp as part of their STAMPtember celebrations. If you're new to STAMPtember then welcome to a fabulous month-long stamping party full of new goodies, inspiration and much more!

I'm kicking off STAMPtember with the help of this new oh-so-handy Birthday Frame die paired with this brand-new Best Hugs stamp set along with the new Island Crush Hybrid Stamping Ink Cube Pack. I guarantee that this die and stamp set are going to remain firmly within my crafty reach. I love them!

Oh, and I couldn't resist adding magical sparkles with my Wink of Stella pen and gloops of Glossy Accents to the die-cut element of the sentiment. :)

• Get more from your inks! I used the SSS ink not only to stamp with, but as a watercolour paint to paint stripes across my card front as well as sponging it onto my white die-cut sentiment to create a soft ombre effect. 
• To make the word 'BIRTHDAY' pop, I sponged Hot Mama ink towards the bottom of my stamped sentiment. This also has the added bonus of that panel imitating the ombre 'girl' sentiment. 
• For a fun twist I stamped a heart to dot the 'i' of the 'girl' sentiment. This complements the solid heats stamped onto the card front from the same stamp set. 

It's only a matter of time until I use this die for a fun shaker card but before I get a chance to do so,  I just know that there are some fabulous designers who are also partying STAMPtember stylee so be sure to pop across and get some serious mojo-boosting inspiration. You may just find that a couple of goodies pop into your virtual shopping basket too! ;)

Simon Says Stamp MEGA Falling For You Blog Hop!

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Happy Friday! Hooray for the start of the weekend! How about we kick it off in style with one MEGA blog hop full of inspiration, prizes, an incredible line up (I'm still wondering how I got my name on the guest list) and amazing new products from the wonderful peeps at Simon Says Stamp? Sounds good? Super!

Simon Says Stamp have just released a HUGE amount of goodies as part of their Falling For You! collection. It's all available to purchase NOW! We're celebrating with a good ol' blog hop so you should have hopped across here from the super-talented Mary Dawn Quirindongo. If you haven't, then be sure to start out at the Simon Says Stamp Blog!

I was kindly sent a couple of products from the range and they arrived just in the nick of time to whip up a couple of cards. First up, I fell head-over-heels for the HUGE Falling Hearts 6x6" cling stamp  - it's such a wonderful design! I felt like getting a little arty so I heat-embossed the design with white embossing powder, saturated the piece with water and created a little faux-watercolour ombre look with some Spun Sugar Distress Ink. The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Floral Bookmarking stamp set and co-ordinates perfectly with the falling hearts.

• I opted to heat-emboss the sentiment onto vellum as it doesn't detract from the pretty background that I spent most of my time creating! 
• I added a little more of a distressed look by flicking water onto the painted piece and blotting it with a tissue. The water reacts with the Distress Ink to give a bleaching effect - perfect for an imperfect look!
• If you're going use a heat tool to speed up the drying process be careful not to apply excess heat to pre heat-embossed images. Burnt embossing powder is not a good look! 

Next up, I played with the Circle Dots stencil which features a very cool design suitable for a variety of occasions and recipients.

I figured I'd just let this stencil do the talking with some gold glitter paste  - to put an extra spin on things I decided to stencil the design over this soft, watercolour-style paper from Crate Paper's Kiss Kiss collection. The sentiment is from the Simon Says Stamp Summer Garden stamp set designed by Mama Elephant. I'm seeing this peach and gold colour combo everywhere right now and love it!

Well that's all from me today but before I tell you who to hop along to next, be sure to leave a comment as every blog on the hop has a Simon Says Stamp prize pack up for grabs for one lucky winner! A winner will be drawn at random from the comments on April 28th.

And now it's time to hippety hop across to Lydia Fiedler for some more SSS inspiration! Thanks so much for stopping by here today and have a wonderful weekend! :D

Joy (it's Friday!)

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Happy Friday! Happy Halloween! Here's a Christmas card LOL!

Yup, it might be Halloween, but here it's Operation Christmas Cards. I've got a ton of these to whip out in what's proving to be an extremely busy time of year. This is another simple design featuring a combination of two Simon Says Stamp stamp sets: the wreath and berries from Autumn Blessings (designed by Clearly Besotted Stamps for SSS) and the sentiment from the Ornaments stamp set from the Stamptember festivities. I love how an autumnal stamp set can pair up with and complement a festive one. :)

I think the card is pretty self explanatory with its simple design. I'm not sure I can tear myself away from this traditional colour combo with it though!

I'm sure you have many more spooktacular things on the agenda today, so let dash and take this chance to wish you a seriously spooky Halloween. For those of us not celebrating Halloween - happy Friday! Enjoy it and have a wonderful weekend!

Thank you so very, very much for visiting today. I'll be back tomorrow with some Clearly Besotted Stamps sneaky peeks - stay tuned! ;)

Products used

*Neenah Classic Crest **110 LB** SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets	*Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# GREEN APPLE GA6	*Simon Says Stamp Card Stock 100# LIPSTICK RED LR10	SSS Ornaments STAMPtember stamp set
SSS Autumn Blessing stamp set	*Simon Says Stamp Premium Dye Ink Pad LIPSTICK RED ink010	*Simon Says Stamp Premium Dye Ink Pad GREEN APPLE ink006	*Tsukineko MEMENTO Full Size Ink Pad TUXEDO BLACK
*We R Memory Keepers RED Baker's Twine Spool	*Hero Arts 25 LITTLE CLOTHESPINS Clothes Pins So Cute ch114	*Cuttlebug Die-Cut & Emboss Machine Provo Craft 2000293	*Cuttlebug A2 Embossing Folder SWISS DOTS Provo Craft 37-1604

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Bauble/Fairy Light Stamp = Flower/Poinsettia Stamp

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I'm stopping by today to share with you the results of a stamping adventure with Simon Says Stamp in aid of Stamptember®. Yup, forget September, it's all about Stamptember® - having fun stamping the month away with Simon Says Stamp goodies, competitions, inspiration and much more!

Simon Says Stamp were extremely sweet and sent me this fabulous Ornaments stamp set to play with and I can confidently say that it's confirmed my Christmas card design this year (yup, gonna have to mass produce a couple of designs this year seeing as we have a wedding to plan for in January - more on that later...!)

But you know me. I like to see just how far I can stretch a set and this Ornaments set has oodles of value. Peeps might see a little bauble/fairly light stamp in this set, but I saw a poinsettia/petal stamp and by simply rotating the stamp through 360 degrees I'd created this flower. Add some pearls to the centre et voila! a poinsettia. :)

All it need then was a lovely sentiment from the set and a card base. I was going to reach for my dark green cardstock - it's a natural reaction when I'm Christmas crafting - but then my eye turned to the gorgeous Tropical Teal cardstock and the rest was history. I love how bright and fun the colour combo is for the festive season. To add more interest to that gorgeous-coloured card base I used my Simon Says Stamp Falling Snow stencil with gold Sparkle Medium. :)

• To use this set to create a generic flower simply change the centre to one large gem/brad.
• Due to the repetition of the stamping, the ink layers as you stamp over pre-stamped petals which gives the effect of an additional layer of petals. 
• It's much easier to stamp and then die-cut the circle than to try and precisely stamp the flower in the centre of a circle. :) 

So there you have it. A bauble/fairy light transforms into a flower/poinsettia stamp in six easy stamps!

Right, must dash. I know I say that all the time but my guy and I have made the crazy decision to get married sooner rather than later - we have a wedding to plan for January and all I've purchased so far are my shoes! We have have lots lot lists to make...good job my guy loves planning and organising LOL!

Thank you so much for stopping by today and be sure to pop across the Simon Says Stamp for the rest of the Stamptember® shenanigans!

Products Used

Simon Says Stamp Ornaments stamp set	*VERSAMAGIC Archival Chalk Ink Pad RED MAGIC	*Tsukineko MEMENTO Full Size Ink Pad TUXEDO BLACK	Papertrey Ink - Tropical Teal Card
*Neenah Classic Crest **110 LB** SMOOTH SOLAR WHITE Paper Pack 25 Sheets	Cuttlebug Die Cutting Machine	Spellbinder Circle Nestability Die	*RESERVE Simon Says Stamp Stencil FALLING SNOW 121324
Sparkle Medium - Gold Shine	*Hero Arts 42 Accent Pearls LIGHT YELLOW CH198

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