Hello, Friends, and a very happy Monday to you! We have a shiny new week in front of us and I, for one, am looking forward to it! To kick things off this week, I'm joining in the fun at Pinkfresh! They're having a blog hop to celebrate their August release, and they sent me a box of these new products to create with, to hopefully give you some inspiration! Shall we dig right in to the projects?
So, I'm just gonna say right now that I love this card! Haha....is that bad to say? I didn't know I was gonna love it till it got closer and closer to being done and then all of a sudden, everything just clicked and it all came together and I was smitten! So here's what you need to do....start out by stamping and die cutting three of the floral arrangement from the new Floral Vase stamp set. Then, get out something to color them with and settle in for a relaxing coloring sesh!
If you saw the sneak peek I shared on my Instagram, then you may have noticed a bit of my process. I add color to the images with my Zig clean color real brush watercolor markers, and then I go back in with a water brush to blend out the color, creating the watercolored look.
PRO TIP: Don't add color with the marker to the entire area you're coloring. For instance, if you're coloring a leaf, just add your color at the base of the leaf -- at the point where the color would be the darkest. That way, when you go over the color with your water brush, you can drag the color up the length of the leaf. This keeps the color the most intense at the base, and lighter at the tip, therefore doing a bit of shading work for you!
ANOTHER PRO TIP: After you add your first layer of color and water, let those areas sit to dry! Move on to something else, or simply move on to color another portion of the image THAT DOESN'T TOUCH the part you just colored. You don't want the colors to bleed. THEN, when your first layers have dried, go back in and repeat the process, with additional colors or even with the same colors but just in more specific areas to add shading. Again, blend out with water and let dry. Repeat again with more shading color if needed until you're happy with the finished product.
So after my three watercolored die cuts were dry, they were ready to use on the card. First though, I die cut three each of the letter "H" and the letter "I", from the new Kelly Alpha - Upper Case dies. I adhered those to the front of my card, and then positioned my three die cuts around the HI. After I adhered them with foam adhesive, I used paper snips to trim off the excess from each of those die cuts. I then added foam adhesive to the bits I'd trimmed off, repositioned those on TOP of the first die cuts, and adhered them to the card front! I trimmed off the excess again, and did the same thing with a couple of tiny flowers, stacking them three-deep in some cases, on the card!
PRO TIP: Don't forget to look at your die cuts beyond the shape they come in! I was able to completely customize this single image by using it in a completely different way than it was designed! By attaching and then trimming off at the card's edge, it meant that I could use nearly all of those three die cuts I'd colored....just in a totally different configuration!
Once I had the flowers attached to the card, I went in and stamped the "hello friend" from the new Delicate Wreath set, as a finishing touch.
{Hello Friend supplies -- click on thumbnails}
So this next card is a fun one! My first thought when I saw these two different sets, was to use them together! If you get both sets, they each have a completely different feel, and therefore you can use them to make a really wide variety of cards! But pair them together, and all of a sudden, they just look like they were made for each other!! I love how this one turned out!
So what we have here, is the wreath and a sentiment from Delicate Wreath. I did a bit of shading by blending inks on the wreath, with a blending brush, before stamping. I love that two-tone blue/green effect.
After I attached the wreath to the aqua card stock panel and then to the card front, I trimmed off the side of the wreath and topped it with all kinds of cutie-pie die cut flowers, from the new Lovely Blossoms stamp set. Some gems from my stash finished this one off.
You want to know how to have a fun and relaxing chunk of time? Sit with a pile of white Lovely Blossoms die cuts, and just play. Stamp all of those little flowers in a variety of color combinations. Even better if you don't have a specific card in mind at the time. Just stamp those little flowers just for the fun of it!! When you're done, you will have had the joy of stamping and relaxing, and you'll also have a darling pile of die cuts ready to use on your next project!
{Grateful For You supplies}
Ok, so this was a fun one to make, and it couldn't be easier, besides!
I blended some blue and green inks on white card stock in three areas and then die cut three of the new Leafy Branch from the ink-blended areas, making sure to keep track of all the centers of the leaves, too. I knew I wanted to use those on the card, too! I also die cut three of the new Beautiful Word die.
I blended a bit of yellow ink on a white card base, and then attached the branches with some liquid glue and all three layers of the "Beautiful" with spray adhesive. To finish it off, I stamped the "Hello" from Delicate Wreath, and then topped the branches with a few yellow gems from my stash. Simple and yet really fun, yes?
{Hello Beautiful supplies}
Ok, one more before I go! Fo this one, I die cut the new Leafy Envelope from white card stock, and blended some ink colors on the foliage popping out the top. I also stamped a sentiment from Floral Vase, and then took lots of those fun little flower die cuts I mentioned before from Lovely Blossoms, and popped them up with foam adhesive, to look like they're exploding out of the envelope!
You could do this same card in a ton of different color combinations, and of course, you could change up the sentiment to suit a huge variety of occasions, too!
{Sending Faraway Hugs supplies}
Ok, friends, I'm gonna run for now, but I've got a few fun details to share with you! Pinkfresh is giving away the cutie-pie die in the graphic above, as a free gift with any purchase, while supplies last! It looks so fun.....you could definitely create some really cute cards, just with that die and a sentiment stamp! (Remember my tips from the first card I shared with you today!!)
There are quite a few other girls participating in the blog hop today, so you'll want to visit each of them, too! And don't forget to comment along the way, too, because there's free Pinkfresh money up for grabs from each blog! Your comment is your contest entry!
Click the button below, to see the whole link list for the blog hop....you'll see all of their pretty faces, so you can easily hop around to visit each one!
Pinkfresh is also giving away their entire new release on their blog!! And like I mentioned, they're also giving away a $25 gift card to one winner from the comments on each of the blogs on the hop! So you'll want to leave a comment here because one of your comments, will be chosen for a gift card! Who doesn't love free crafty money to spend?? :) The winners will be posted on Monday, Sept. 2 on the Pinkfresh giveaway page.
Thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me! I hope I've given you some inspiration to get your own creative juices flowing!
Happy Monday!
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