Notable Nest

Pinkfresh Studio “Homespun with Heart” Release Blog Hop

2026-02-05T10:00:00.237-05:00

Hi Friends! Welcome to the February release hop from Pinkfresh! It has the usual beautiful florals, but if you are a needle crafter, hang on to your hats!! So many sets for your must-have list, just like me : ) Warning: it may be hard to decide!

Quite a collection, all housed under the name The Stitch Edit. Let's start with my main card, the one that includes most of the elements from The Stitch Edit: Thread Spool and The Stitch Edit: Thread Spool Florals.

I was heavily inspired by my own little collection of antique button cards on the sides of this photo. Love that there are four different kinds of thread spools, and floral details to go along with each one. You can elect to add your own buttons and thread, like I did here, or make your own die-cut buttons and thread from The Stitch Edit: Notion Story Die!

Honestly how adorable is this die-cut gold needle, that you can actually thread with floss?!

The lace edging comes from The Stitch Edit: Heritage Lace dies. I masked them across the middle to make a darker section of lace on the interior edge.

I also wanted to make a cute little gift card holder or tag using The Stitch Edit: Large Spool Die. On the bottom of this photo you can see there's a slot that's just perfect for tucking away some cash!

This die is perfect to create your own spool card!

And including a needle book insert is next-level fun! Aside from the needle die, no special die is needed, I just cut and scored a scrap of paper, punched some small holes for the needle die cuts to go through, stamped a quote that went with the needles, and that was it!

Don't they look like real needles?!

As I was cleaning up, I felt compelled to use up my leftover die cuts, and surprised myself by walking away with these three additional cards!

These two thread spools (one cut in half) were from the first card. I love that the bottom of the spool has a sentiment, which came about from not inking the florals on the bottom of the thread spool border stamp, and instead stamping the sentiment there.

The base of the card is embossed with all of the lace border dies from The Stitch Edit: Heritage Lace.

This card also uses all the border lace die-cuts, this time adhered to the card base.

I'd also like to call your attention to all the embossed details on the border laces. It really adds so much dimension in real life - you want to run your fingers along the ridges. The brown bow is from the Ribbon Splendor die.

Finally, this card is "From the Heart." I didn't end up using the blue two-layer die-cut thread for my first card, and I had one unused floral spool where the stamping was off center a bit, so I combined them together and it turns out you don't notice the spacing when the die-cut thread is covering the middle!

The "From the Heart" sentiment called for two hearts on the background. I added some of the die-cut buttons I hadn't used earlier, and guided the paper thread through the needle. The tiny gold heart is a leftover piece from the Maker's Essentials scissors die! I thought it was a cute addition and another reference to the sentiment.

I was pretty happy with my main two projects, but super excited I got three bonus projects from what was left on my desk! Thanks so much for checking everything out! I hope you found an idea to file away!

Prizes

We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel, as well as a total of TEN $50 gift cards along the hop. Comment along the hop for chances to win. All winners will be posted on February 12, 2026 on the GIVEAWAY PAGE, make sure to check within 2 weeks!

You have reached the final stop on this hop - if you jumped in the middle of the hop here's a quick link back to the beginning at Pinkfresh!!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kelly

Pinkfresh Studio “Delicate Details” Release Blog Hop

2025-11-14T10:00:00.258-05:00

Hi Friends!

Welcome to the Pinkfresh Delicate Details Hop, where it's all about ribbons, bows, tea time, and flowers (of course flowers, it's Pinkfresh!!!) I'm anxious to share lots of good ideas and different ways to use these sets - let's get started!

Here are TWO AND A HALF cards made from one cut each of the new Bloomscape and Ribbon Splendor sets, plus a few leftovers (in the spirit of American Thanksgiving!)

This card has about a third of the flowers from Bloomscape, which are all individually cut so you can arrange them in unlimited, unique ways each time.

You're going to see this adorable ribbon a lot - here I've just used one of the bows. The sentiment is one of nine from the On My Mind set. Check out the cute blue-striped background - an oldie but goodie Border Stencil that I turn to often for custom backgrounds.

Remember the lone blue bow from the last card? This is where I cut it out from! I used the remaining top portion of the die (the three blue bows) to cascade around the Gazebo Die (which is on sale for 75% off now - only $3.50!!!)

Another third of the flowers from Bloomscape are grouped along the bottom, with one tiny beige flower in the middle, and an even tinier purple flower on top. This set has a great variety of sizes and shapes to make arranging easier. I wanted to quickly hide the uneven ends, so I grabbed a leftover Daisy Chain Coverplate strip to wrap around them.

Here's the half card lol! The purple top layer is the white panel I cut all the flowers out of (I inked it purple afterwards). The bottom layer is the press plate with no ink, just as an embosser, but I did create it separately for this card, which is why I only counted it as half coming from one pass of those two earlier sets (Bloomscape and Ribbon Splendor).

The sentiment is another one from the new On My Mind set. This set is very quick to put together, but the intricate die cut outlines and all the detail in the press plate underneath make it look much more involved.

Finally, I wanted to make one card that uses the Ribbon Splendor die as intended. The premise of this card is to use two different patterned papers from your stash. Don't overthink it! I literally grabbed the first two panels I touched (I precut several panels of different patterns so they are ready to go).

The presents and sentiment from Holiday Bicycle are the perfect size to fill the space between the four red bows. I made these specially for this card, but this general idea would be a good way to use up leftovers!! The formula would be: Ribbon Splendor die cut + 2 patterned papers + small die cut image + sentiment = DONE!

Thanks so much for checking out my cards! I hope you found an idea to file away!

Prizes

We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel, as well as a total of TEN $50 gift cards along the hop. Comment along the hop for chances to win. All winners will be posted on November 21, 2025 on the GIVEAWAY PAGE, make sure to check within 2 weeks!

I'm pleased to send you to the next stop on this hop, the fabulous Carissa Wiley!! She will wow you, as always!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kelly

Granny Squares, Times Three! New Concord and 9th

2025-10-13T09:00:00.072-04:00

Hello Friends! I'm super excited to be sharing the new October Release from Concord and 9th with you ALL WEEK LONG! We're starting with my personal favorite, the Granny Squares!!

They have a turnabout stamp that creates a nice little collage of granny squares in 4 different color combos.

The crochet hooks are to-die-for!! I cut them in a coordinating colored cardstock and crossed them behind the sentiment that also comes with this set. And yes, I know crochet only uses 1 hook unlike knitting lol!

This set also comes with a set of stamps that will make one larger granny square. For this card I stamped it several times on the card base to make my own afghan!

This sentiment is from a different set in this release, but how perfect is it for this cozy quilt?!

Finally, I kept the same colors but just changed the order for a new look. Also just made half a quilt so I could showcase one of the squares in the process of being created.

I had the idea to knot real yarn/floss around the gold metallic crochet hook as soon as I saw the mock up images for this set, and was happy to see how well it turned out. I used the Stitched Vines die for the background on top, perfect with the stitching theme.

Hope you liked my trio of Granny Square cards, and have some ideas brewing for yourself! You could spend a looooong time just working through all the different color combinations!

See you tomorrow with the next set featured.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kelly

Bad to the Bone - a New Halloween Release from Colorado Craft!

2025-10-12T23:10:00.003-04:00

Hi All! Big news - Colorado Craft Company has just put out a new release after a brief hiatus! And it's quite a thriller : )

My favorite is the Big and Bold Bad to the Bone, which initially sold out but was restocked today!

I stamped the skull on charcoal paper and used a white chalk pencil to make the highlights. For the earthworms crawling through, I used an orange opaque marker and went over it with a combination of white chalk, a white gel pen, and a black pencil.

The eyes, nose and jaw holes are cut out and backed with black glitter paper. For the card base I cut a piece of lace as a contrast and stapled it in the corners of the card.

For the next card I went the opposite direction, stamped the skull on white paper and added shadows with watercolor.

For the card base I stamped one of the sentiments repeatedly and tried out three different colors for the background. Welp I couldn't decide so I ended up using my "practice" card lol. Love the sentiment that goes so well with the skull image.

Hope you're on your way to having a creepy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!
Kelly

Pinkfresh Studio “Forests & Fables” Release Blog Hop

2025-09-23T10:00:00.165-04:00

Hi Friends!

Welcome to the Pinkfresh Fables & Forests Blog Hop! I have to admit it's been a while since I've written a blog post, and I feel a bit rusty lol! But let's give this a try again and see what happens!

I've made three different cards today with the Dreamer's Forest Stamp and Stencil sets. You'll notice they all look similar, and that's because I used the same base for all three cards! Let's make things easy on ourselves, right?

This card uses the panel made from the Dreamer's Forest Stamp and stencil set as-is, with just a gold thread wrapped around the bottom and a sentiment from Twighlight Tales.

It's beautiful with all the detail, and the stencils offer a complex coloring scheme that leaves you wondering how this was colored, especially since the stenciled areas cover the entire card! You can add color to the ground and sky, instead of just the trees and clouds.

Love how the storybook sentiment goes with the fantasy coloring of a pink and melon forest.

For the next two cards I stenciled another panel just like the previous card, but cut it into three different pieces. Two of them I backed with the Nesting Postage Stamp dies and layered on this card, with the original sentiment I made for the first card.

For the background I stamped the card with the same Dreamer's Forest stamp and ink blended on top.

For the final card I used the Elongated Lattice Coverplate die as a background. To spice it up a bit I stitched with matching embroidery thread in the tiny dots made by the coverplate.

I think this sentiment from the Twilight Tales set goes really well with the multicolored tree and its imagined history of growth.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a few different ideas for the Dreamer's Forest set!

Prizes

We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel, as well as a total of TEN $50 gift cards along the hop. Comment along the hop for chances to win. All winners will be posted on September 30, 2025 on the GIVEAWAY PAGE, make sure to check within 2 weeks!

I'm pleased to send you to wonderful Rachel's blog to see her beautiful creations!

Here's the full hop if you've missed a stop or want to go back:

Thanks so much for stopping by! Check out our Instagram Hop tomorrow for more fun!

Kelly

Altenew January Release Blog Hop - Lots of Prizes and Giveaways!

2025-01-09T12:00:00.390-05:00

Hi Friends! First, my thoughts and prayers go out to all the people of Southern California. So many have had their entire lives ripped away from them by the wildfires plaquing their communities. I'm hoping the lack of winds today will help the firefighters contain the fires.

That being said, I'm so excited to join all these talented crafters for the Altenew January Release Blog Hop! You may have come from the one-and-only Cathy Zielske, but if not feel free to start your hop at Altenew.

There's a lot I'm anxious to share so let's get right to it!

The Craft Your Life Project Kit: Butterfly Garden has this amazing set of stencils that creates a beautiful collection of butterflies, foliage, and dots.

There's also a die to cut these all out at the same time, which I've done for a subsequent card, but for this card I chose to feature them all uncut as a patterned paper.

I did cut a set of butterflies from plain white cardstock, and used one to cover the middle butterfly, bending the wings up so you can still get a peek at the colors underneath.

Ombre enamel dots down the buterfly's body match the ink colors.

These are some of the butterflies I cut out from that large sheet, flying out of the stamped mason jar.

I like that the die cuts pretty close to the image.

The fancy gold-embossed HOPE sentiment is from this Butterfly Garden set as well.

Here's another version of that card, but with a vellum mason jar, and solid cardstock butterflies. The background is a bit smoother (almost like cement), as I inked onto the dry side of the card instead of the wet side in the prior example. What a great sentiment!!

Coordinating with the Butterfly Garden, there's a stand alone Serene Garden embossing folder that has an incredible amount of detail in the main butterfly, as well as some florals. It's all you really need for a card!

Before embossing, I inked up the folder with warm gray and was able to really highlight the embossed images in white.

Another useful set is the Have Faith Word Die - bonus that EVERYTHING is connected, even the dot on the "i" yay!

This Garden Bench set is just so adorable, and the best thing is that even with all of the detail on the bench with the wood slats and the wrought iron scroll frame, there are only three pieces to cut and assemble. Thoughtfully designed!

This is one of the sentiments that comes with the mini stamp set, and I think it's a sweet way to send your sympathies to someone.

Finally, the Carnation Layering Dye Set really impressed me. Aside from the ease of cutting the petals and leaves all at one time, there are some nice debossed areas in the middle of the petals and veins of the leaves to give extra interest.

I cut all petal layers out of a light pink cardstock and then inked the different layers. Extra foliage from the Butterfly Garden are tucked into the grouping.

To balance the large black sentiment on top, and the thin black secondary sentiment, I wanted some black on the bottom of the card too, but black cardstock was feeling a bit flat. So I went into my basement storage area and grabbed some black lace. Perfect!

Giveaway Info:

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by January 15th for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on January 17th, 2025.

The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

I'm now pleased to send you to the next stop on this hop with Pam Boedeker! If you need to zip to anywhere else in the hop the master list is below:

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links if you like what you see, I appreciate your support!!)

Carnation Layering Die Set

Garden Bench Die and Mini Stamp Set

Craft Your Life Kit: Butterfly Garden

Altenew July 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

2024-07-10T09:00:00.340-04:00

Hello Friends! Oh boy what a fun July Release this is from Altenew, with a little bit of everything - stamps, stencils, press plates, embossing folders, and even a new set of inks! I really took to this release and have A TON to show you, so let's get to it!!

You may have come from the sweetest ever Hannelie, but if not feel free to start the hop at the Altenew Blog!

As soon as I saw this Stencil Art: White Cap Peonies stencil I KNEW it was going to be FAB-U-LOUS!! And the first time I inked it up it did NOT disappoint!

The giant size and the multiple colors just demand attention! It's made with 6 different stencils so there's a lot of variation you can add. And not even a stamp in sight.

The Flutter and Bloom Set is an absolutely massive 8x11" set that also has tons of possibilities. The flowers stamped on the card base are sweet, but hello those butterflies are super elegant and delightful!

After coloring them with the stencils (love all the different color options on these!) I bent the wings up from the bodies for some cheap and easy dimension for the card.

This set is the Tangerine Grove Set and I like that in addition to the tangerines it features blooms, many different leaves (with varied colors) and the branches. It's all those details I think that make it lush.

There are a lot of different sentiments to pick from, including this gold one. The black raised sentiment is from an awesome embossing folder that's coming up : )

Here are two different looks for the same Inked Poppies press plate - one high on contrast and drama for a modern feel, the other a bit more weathered for a vintage feel.

What grabs me with this set is all the detailed lines making beautiful impressions when they are pressed in the paper - you just want to run your fingers over it all.

There's another floral press plate in this release that I think deserves some attention - the Blossoming Bouquet Set. This one has a coordinating stencil to aid in coloring it. I felt like mixing it up a bit and stamped it in the new Coral Bliss from the Tea Party Cube Set.

The HELLO sentiment, which also comes with this set, and the new raised embossed sentiment, which is still coming up, are bordered by an older Deco Cover Die set that I honestly get so much use out of.

This card was so fun, as it's a giant mash-up of sets from this release! We've got the previous Blossoming Bouquet Set in the background (stamped in green this time, instead of coral),

more of those raised sentiment strips, all cut from a massive Raised Sentiments Embossing Folder which produces sentiments for days (check out the piles of sentiments I've got waiting in Theo wings on the left edge of this next photo!!)

And finally, the star of this show, the best value Mini Delight Live in the Moment Set! How adorable is that tiny clock with the silver bells?! and the subtly-stamped rose on the face of the clock (which actually comes with this set as well, for even more value)! And the adhesive gem detail for the middle of the hands!!

You can also see a bit better in this photo how the sentiment is raised from the embossing folder. I ran the sentiment strip across a white ink pad, and then ended up using a white gel pen to make the white show up a bit more.

Two different ways to use the Blossoming Bouquet Set!

Finally, let’s see two of the new sets of ink colors - a Warm Gray Mini Cube Set that makes the leaves fad into the background in the best possible way, and one of my favorite color hues of all time, a handful of blushes from the Tea Party Cube Set.

I could just swim in those melon beauties!!

Whew! Hope you liked going through the new July Release with me, and maybe got a few ideas for yourself!

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by July 16, 2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on July 18, 2024.

*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Your next stop on this hop is Maria!

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies used (affiliate links, thanks for your support!):

Blossoming Bouquet Set

Inked Poppies Set

Raised Sentiments Embossing Folder

Stencil Art: White Cap Peonies

Live in the Moment Set

Tangerine Grove Set

Stencil Art: White Cap Peonies

Flutter and Bloom Set

Warm Gray Mini Cube Set

Tea Party Cube Set

Altenew May 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

2024-05-08T09:00:00.293-04:00

April showers bring ... all the Altenew flowers! The new Altenew May Release has no shortage of these May flowers, but also a lot of other must-haves, including the sweetest mini set with a birdcage and butterflies (sold out on the first day yesterday!), an exotic bird, and glamorous Art Deco elements.

You may have come from the blog of the amazing Jaycee Gaspar, but if not feel free to start this blog hop at the beginning on the Altenew Blog.

I admit, I'm a sucker for a plain stencil set! It always amazes me how much detail and beauty can be achieved without even a single stamp involved. This is the Stencil Art: Charming Delight.

Check out that detail in the center of the flower even! I added a bit with colored pencils, but wow. The two sentiments are from this set as well.

The border from Deco Cover Die adds the finishing touch, in a subtle way with a tone on tone die cut. Instatnt texture!

Here's the same Stencil Art: Charming Delight but this time I cut the main flower in half and used one half on top and the other on bottom.

Let's talk a bit about the Pixel Grid Cover Die, the ultimate in texture! I cut extra layers of the Charming Delight flowers, added those to the card base, and then sandwiched the Pixel Grid cover die in between the Charming Delight top and bottom layers. You get a lot of nice shadows this way.

The sentiments are nice from this set too - love the small font in all caps. The Hugs sentiment is a stencil and die combo, and since it was a stencil I was able to quickly combine the blue and purple colors.

I love Art Deco design, so was thrilled when I saw the Deco Frames, and this Streamlined Sprig.

It reminds me of an elegant stained glass, with the metallic gold outline. If you look close on the card base, you can see the Deco Fan Hot Foil Plate used as a press plate for a lovely background.

How about a tone-on-tone card - white-on-white is such a classic, and then when you add a bit of metallic gold : )

This time I used the Deco Fan Hot Foil Plate as a press plate on vellum to get a more pronounced impression.

One more project for the Art Deco supplies, the smallest Deco Cover Die is the perfect size to make your own custom faux book binding!! (and personalized tag)

Boy does it really shine when cut from metallic gold!

The middle of the Deco frame is the perfect size for the Tall Alpha Die set, and it's even on sale 30% off now!

Any time you can easily make a tall slimline card, you know there's a lot in the stamp set. This Build a Garden: Exotic Tuberose set completely covers the lower half of the card with the Tuberoses, and the upper half of the card with an exotic bird that was so fun to pick colors for.

Because of the tall nature of the card, I was able to use three of the sentiments from this set on the same card. I really like this set and all the design that went into it.

Finally, the Mini Delight: Butterfly Dreams Set is quite a workhorse. It's hard to believe such a tiny set can create such a large card.

Me with the gold again lol, but I love the gold accents on the black iron birdcage, with a gold sentiment in the "doorway".

Here's another sentiment from this set. To make the rainbow butterfly flock I lined up the outline and fill stamps in my Misti for the two butterflies on the right, and then kept rotating the square card 90 degrees and stamping again until it was all filled.

I had the Tall Alpha Dies out from the prior cards, and was happy to see that they fit in the birdcage as well (top right). This set came about quickly once it was set up.

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 05/14/2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 05/16/2024.

*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Your next stop on this blog hop is Lhey Bella Ralston!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies used (thanks for supporting my blog by using affiliate links!):

Streamlined Sprig

Pixel Grid Cover Die

Deco Cover Die

Deco Fan Hot Foil Plate

Deco Greetings Stamp Set

Build a Garden: Exotic Tuberose

Mini Delight: Butterfly Dreams

Stencil Art: Charming Delight

Colorado Craft New Release Featuring Kris Lauren Blog Hop

2024-04-27T05:45:00.002-04:00

Hello and welcome to the Colorado Craft Company new release blog hop! This release features the artistry of Kris Lauren, and several of her adorable critters.

What a cute sentiment! And scene to support it. In fact, this Good Company Stamp Set comes with two different choices of company to ride in your basket - this little bunny, or a fox. Either a worthy companion for Mr. Bear. There are also a few flowers to fancy things up.

Because the lines of the bicycle are so narrow for coloring, I didn't want to get out my watercolors, so I turned to my colored pencils. It's been a hot minute since I've played with these, and quite enjoyed it. Making fur for Mr. Bear was enjoyable, as well as the grass.

To finish this one off I sponged some yellow for a nice sunny day and blended a bit of sky on top of the card.

This little guy is just hands down adorable!! He looks so pleased with himself. He's from the Oceans to Fly set and is one of two different airplane pilots.

The sentiment is so cute for my little nieces and nephews! And I like that it can be for many different occasions.

Since the main image is small, I was thinking about what kind of background to make for the rest of the card. Then it occurred to me to just use the large airplane stamp!

The last card features the other airline pilot, who's quite excited to spot his adventure ahead!

I still had the colored pencils out from the bear riding a bicycle card so I put them to use on this card as well. It was fun to mix in a few different colors on the plane.

The banner sentiment is from a smaller set called Greetings Banner. After cutting the banner out and attaching it, I bent it up so it folds inward and would fit into an A2-sized envelope.

Originally I had just cut out several white clouds and layered them on the bottom of the card (see top photo). After photographing the card, I thought it was too washed out and didn't show well enough, and regretted not inking the edges before adhering them to the card base. Well, I decided to try inking the edges without removing the clouds from the card by slipping a piece of paper underneath the edges and sponging with the fine blending brushes which I love. I was happy that it worked!

I added another sentiment embossed in gold, and tucked it behind the cloud puffs.

Prizes!
We're doing two different giveaways! Enter as many times as you'd like until Apr 30th. Winners announced on May 2nd. Good luck!!

Giveaway 1: All designers will be giving away a stamp set from this release to a lucky winner that will be drawn from all the comments left on our blogs or instagram.
Giveaway 2:
We'll be giving away the complete release to one randomly chosen winner that has placed an order using your favorite designer's affiliate link (for example, by clicking on the links on the images in this blog post below).
Now it's time to send you to the blog of Kelly Taylor who will astound you with something amazing (as always)!
Here's a complete list of stops on this hop if you need it:

BLOGS:

Kelly Taylor
Kassi Hulet

Nancy Sheads
Sandy Allnock

IG:

Thanks for stopping by!

Kelly

Good Company

Oceans to Fly

Greetings Banner

Altenew April 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

2024-04-11T09:00:00.603-04:00

Hello and welcome to the April Altenew release hop, which also coincides with their TENTH anniversary! I wonder how many stamp sets that would be over the last decade?! Well, no surprise, Altenew has celebrated big this month and has quite an unbelievable release - here's a link to the April Full Release

Let's get started as I have A TON of cards to share

The Altenew 10th Anniversary is celebrated with a GIGANTIC 8x11 Bouquet of Poppies Set that has stamps, dies, stencils. The poppies are so large I had to make a 8.5" tall slimline card to feature them lol! Note that this set also comes with butterflies to rest on your sentiment!!

There are also two sentiments from two different sets featured here: One Go Words and Banners, and Celebration Sentiments. Both sets have several different sentiments so it's nice to make them all at one time and then you have easy leftovers for future projects.

Since the image is so large, I thought it might make a good 2-for-1 card, and I was right! I colored another full image on a 5.5x11 cardstock ...

And after cutting it in half ended up with two great cards!

Both of these cards feature large gold die-cut sentiments from Timeless Sentiments 2, as well as a sentiment from the giant Bouquet of Poppies Set.

And a butterfly : ) It's such a good way to add another color to your card, as well as making it more than another "flower card."

The bottom half of the large poppy image features three different sentiments - the "Cheers!" Better Press Celebration Sentiments (which I turned into Gold Hot Foil sentiments), a "thank you for all you do" from the Bouquet of Poppies Set, and "sending smiles" from Timeless Sentiments 2.

I like to pop up the butterfly by bending its wings up - cheapest and easiest way to add dimension to your card!

For only two colorings of the Bouquet of Poppies Set, what a big impact!

Using the leftover butterflies from the Bouquet of Poppies card, I added two of them to another sentiment from Timeless Sentiments 2 which totally fills the card.

The background is a pressing with yellow ink from the Baroque Elegance Press Plate. Nothing fancy in terms of ink or paper, but WOW what a material-like texture!

Next up are three cards made with the Anemone Blue Poppy die. As you can see, I got a bit carried away with this one too!

There are only two main flower dies to make each flower, and two center dies, so not a lot of effort. But wow, great impact!

The lines on each petal automatically made by the die sure do bring a lot of depth to the flowers. For more dimension, I bent up the petals and flower centers.

This is one of my favorites due to the lush plum background with the charcoal ink pressed in from the Baroque Elegance Press Plate.

The peach florals pop, as well as the straight lines on the anemones (vs the baroque floral pattern on the card base)

I had two flowers left over, so they became a third card from this set!

Check out the gems on the Sparkled Frames Die! Those are the Red Jasper Gems. They fit exactly into little circle impressions left from the die so there is no guessing in placement around the frame.

The smaller gold foil sentiment is from One Go Words and Banners and the larder "celebration" is from Timeless Sentiments 2.

A nice little set of cards from this Anemone Blue Poppy set, and you can see how it looks different on a white vs. dark background.

Finally, I got ridiculously carried away with the fantastically and realistically detailed birds from the Rustic Charm stamp/die/stencil/embossing folder set.

Before getting into the cards, can we take a moment to appreciate all the Rustic Charm birds? These are all made with the SAME stamp and stencil!! The fanciful green and pink finch on the top right uses all the different stencil pieces and has all different colors, whereas the yellow-green and red finch on the top left just used the different head stencils, and I kept most of the breast/wings/tail the same color.

On the other hand, the brown and orange robin (left-most bird) has no variation on the head, but the breast/wings/tail are all different.

It was so fun looking up birds like on this stylized poster I found via google search and trying to replicate them (there's a blue jay in the mix as well!) Also fun just to color the birds randomly.

Here's a good reference for all the different color combinations I tried. I get happy just looking at this photo : )

My favorite combinations are these sweet red birds. The left is a male Bull Finch, and the right honestly is made up. But I love the idea of these two different-but-similar birds choosing to hang out with each other on the telephone lines, with all the other outlines of birds in the background. They are indeed best besties!

The way I attached them grabbing onto the gold thread makes them stand out a bit from the card - bonus! Just really love ALL the different colors and tones that bring these birds to life, and it was all so easy with the one-piece stencil!

The bottom is a strip from the Petal Harmony Hot Foil Plate with the new Gold Hot Foil.

Yet another gold foil sentiment from Timeless Sentiments 2.

This card uses the fence stencil and embossing folder that comes with this Rustic Charm set as the background on the card base.

I cut in half the solid floral cluster that also comes with the Rustic Charm set, and added it behind the top and bottom of the oval to give more separation from the lines of the fence. The sentiment is another one from One Go Words and Banners.

For this card I was going for a vintage bird book vibe with a literal book page, and faded colors on the leaves/berries.

I bent the leaves up for dimension, and used a simple sentiment that came with the Rustic Charm set. Also, notice I used the Sparkled Frames Die, only without any of the gems. You can see the circle impressions, but it looks part of the design. Versitile!

This card is simple with a similar formula - patterned background, Sparkled Frame s Die, Timeless Sentiments 2, and a Rustic Charm bird (this time peeking out from behind the frame).

I also cut up a few pieces of the main branch and stuck those behind the frame, in the same colors as the bird to coordinate. This helps make the blush sentiment stand out.

Finally, same exact formula (patterned background, oval die, bird) but a different look. This might be my favorite coloring for the bird.

Glossy accents on the berries, and the pattern on the oval is the Petal Harmony Hot Foil Plate. I offset the oval Sparkled Frames Die (which has the Red Jasper Gems added on top) a bit with another frame cut from book paper.

The background pattern is actually vellum pressed with white ink from the Baroque Elegance Press Plate. Super elegant!

So much to share today - love that you made it all the way through!! Do you have a favorite? Or a favorite bird coloring?

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 04/17/2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/19/2024.

*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Your next stop on this hop is the very talented Aga!

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies Used (thanks for supporting me with affiliate links!)

Bouquet of Poppies Set

Celebration Sentiments

One Go Words and Banners

Timeless Sentiments 2

Rustic Charm

Anemone Blue Poppy

Baroque Elegance Press Plate

Petal Harmony Hot Foil Plate

Sparkled Frames Die

Gold Hot Foil

Micro Blending Brushes

Red Jasper Gems

Altenew 10th Anniversary Blog Hop Day 1 + Giveaway (over $3,500 in Total Prizes)

2024-04-01T09:00:00.212-04:00

Hello friends! Wow - ten years as a successful small business for Altenew - that is HUGE and worthy of great celebration! I couldn't be more happy or proud of all the hardworking folks at Altenew, and am thrilled to be a part of the festivities!

You may have come from Svitlana, but if not feel free to start the fun at Altenew!

Hello 10 Years

I chose to feature a set I hadn't had the chance to use very much - In the Woodland Stamp/Stencil/Die set. The stencils operate a little differently than many coordinating stencil sets, where these stencils intentionally leave a lot of white space on the flowers. I love this look, and need to keep it in mind for future coloring projects. You know these are blush red flowers, but they also keep the light & airy look if you're going for that vibe.

I regretfully forgot about the Bee Kind Stamp and Die Set (which I think is a great deal for $11) until flipping through my small stamp set album looking for another set. So glad I found it! Perfect to pair with any floral set, AND you can put them on springs to make them "buzz" back and forth. I hid where the spring is attached to the card base by cutting a second bee die in white cardstock, punching a hole through it, and putting the wire spring through the hole.

How cute are these buzzing bees?!

The pinstripe background on the card base is from the unfortunately out-of-stock

Striped Circle Stamp Set.

One reason I love using alpha dies is the ability to create specific and personal greetings. "Hello 10 Years" is used from mixing and matching 3 different products: All About You Word Die Set, Celebrate with Cake Die Set, and the Tall Alpha Die Set. The Tall Alpha Die Set is one of my most-used alpha dies because of their slim size, which allows you to fit multiple letters/words on the front of an A2-sized card. Along with being slim, they are also tall so they stand out.

Finally, I love a lot of layers and elements on a card and think it looks luxurious. One of my design tips when adding many different elements (especially from different sets like this card) is to try repetition where possible. In terms of color, I used light blue for the 3 centers of the flowers and the "hello" sentiment, gold/yellow for the leaves, bees, and "10", and blush for the flowers and "years."

Hello to celebrating 10 years, Altenew!! We can't wait for the next decade!

Giveaway Prizes

Over $3,500 in total prizes! We are giving away a $50 Altenew gift certificate to 10 winners, a $20 ArtistrybyAltenew gift certificate to 5 winners, and an online papercrafting class($39.99 value) from Altenew Academy Online Class to 14 winners. There are also 28 awesome companies/crafty friends who are celebrating with us, and they are offering the following prizes:

Altenew: 10 x $50 Altenew Gift Certificates
ArtistrybyAltenew: 5 x $20 ArtistrybyAltenew Gift Certificates
Altenew Academy: 14 x Online Papercrafting Classes($39.99 value each)
Crafter's Companion: 1 x Gemini II Die Cutting and Embossing Machine ($329 value)
LDRS Creative: 4 x $50 LDRS Creative Gift Certificates
Online Card Classes: 5 x Online Card Classes ($25 value each)
Jennifer McGuire Ink: 1 Share Handmade Kindness goodies bag ($100 value)
Honey Bee Stamps: $100 Gift Certificate
Hero Arts: $100 Gift Certificate
Lawn Fawn: $100 Gift Certificate
Pink and Main: $100 Gift Certificate
Scrapbook & Cards Today: $100 Gift Certificate
Taylored Expressions: $100 Gift Certificate
Gina K. Designs: $100 Gift Certificate
CraftStash: $100 Gift Certificate
Brutus Monroe: $100 Gift Certificate
Picket Fence Studios: $50 Gift Certificate
Pelletier Craft Studio: 3 x $25 Gift Certificates
Michelle's Cards and Stamps: AUD $100 Gift Certificate
Spellbinders Paper Arts: 2 x $25 Gift Certificates
Scrapbook.com: $50 Gift Certificate
My Craft Room: $50 Gift Certificate
Krafters Cart: $50 Gift Certificate
A Cherry on Top: $50 Gift Certificate
Simon Says Stamp: $50 Gift Certificate
My Favorite Things: $50 Gift Certificate
Pinkfresh Studio: $50 Gift Certificate
Bumbleberry Papercrafts: £25 Gift Certificate
Seize the Stamp: CHF 25 Gift Certificate
MarkerPop: $25 Gift Certificate
Auzz Trinklets N Krafts: AUD $25 Gift Certificate

Be sure to leave comments by 04/16/2024 for a chance to win one of 68 prizes! To make the hop more exciting, start your comment with "Hi from (city or country where you're from)!" 68 winners will be chosen at random from the comments left on any of the blogs in this hop and will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 04/19/2024.

Your next stop is the wonderfully talented Erica who has something fabulous to share!

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Favorite supplies used (affiliate links provided, thanks for helping support my blog):

Tall Alpha Die Set

In the Woodland Stamps

In the Woodland Dies

Bee Kind Stamp and Die Set

Love the New Colors from Altenew Alcohol Markers Release!

2024-02-26T09:00:00.018-05:00

Hi Friends! Wanted to share a card I made with the newest set of Alcohol Markers released by Altenew called Firewood Garden.

I ended up turning this "Splendid Bouquet" into a bouquet of stargazer lilies lol! The petals looked a little plain (in retrospect, I think this is because I didn't put enough color on the main flower, but I was trying to differentiate it from the darker, smaller flowers in the background) so I added dots in the style of stargazer lilies.

All three sets of colors in this Firewood Garden set are well matched - the dusty mauve, mustard yellow, and citron green are such a great combination to use. Sometimes when buying sets you end up with a few colors or shades you don't think you're going to use often, but not this case with this one!

Don't forget to stop by the Instagram Hop for more inspiration and prizes!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Firewood Garden

Using Acrylic Markers on Dark Backgrounds - Fun to Play With!

2024-02-16T09:00:00.020-05:00

Hello Friends! How long has it been since you've played with acrylic markers? It's been a hot minute for me, and I have to say I've forgotten how fun they are!

I thought they would be perfect for a charcoal sympathy card, and I love the intensity they have on the very dark cardstock.

It's a bit freeing from working with alcohol markers where you're spending a lot of time blending the colors and shading together. This is just pure coloring! You can still add details with these markers by layering a different color on top of your first color. Like the leaves for example, where I've added a few lines and dots to break up the solid color.

If you're in the mood to try something new, I'd recommend picking up a set of the Altenew Acrylic Markers - they're quite inexpensive and come out to around a dollar per marker! There's a whole Instagram hop going on if you're looking for additional inspiration and/or prizes.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Altenew February 2024 Release Blog Hop + Prizes!

2024-02-07T09:00:00.000-05:00

Hello Friends! These cards were sneak-peeked in the January hop, and now that the Graceful Gardenias set is released, with the rest of the February goodies, I'd like to share a bit more about them. You may have come from the amazing Jaycee, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Altenew.

Project Kit - Graceful Gardenias

This large gardenia (my favorite flower, I carried them down the aisle at my wedding and the smell was heavenly!) is detailed enough to be well-illustrated, yet open enough to add your own spin on coloring (see the light polka dots on the orange petals).

The sentiment really says it all, and I love that it's quite substantial. You could absolutely save these three lines for the inside of the card. But on the front, it's a nice secondary sentiment. The Fancy For You die is a staple in my craft room from an old release (but it's still in stock!)

Splitting the giant gardenia in two was a good way to get something for the top and bottom of my card (vs just the middle).

For a second card I inked up the other gardenia in the Graceful Gardenias set and wanted to make a quick card out of it.

I stamped the gardenia first on the base of the card, and then used the coordinating die to place over the stamped image and sponge ink around it.

Then I added a bit more pizzaz to the gardenia by inking the polka dots a little darker on the orange petals. I rotated the gardenia die 180 degrees from the card base so you'd be able to see the leaves poking through.

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner who comments on the Altenew blog, and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners from all the comments on the designers' posts! Please leave comments by 02/13/2024 for a chance to win. Winners will be announced on the Altenew Winners Page on 02/15/2024.

You've reached the end of the blog hop (congrats!) but if you'd like to revisit any of the stops, here is the complete list:

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Altenew Inspiration Challenge - Street Art Can Be a Great Resource for Cardmaking!

2024-02-01T09:00:00.008-05:00

Hello Friends! I'm so excited to be hosting the Altenew Inspiration Challenge for the whole month of February!

It's a color challenge that's based on one of the most beautiful pieces of street art I saw this summer. Head over to their blog to read all about it and hopefully play along!

Here are some photos of how I was inspired by the street art:

Sure hope to see your creations in the gallery!

Thanks for playing!

-Kelly

Using Mini Stamp Sets - Altenew January 2024 Monthly Mini Himilayan Mayapple

2024-01-26T09:00:00.013-05:00

Hello Friends! Wanted to share a card that was made without much investment - one tiny flower stamp and die set (with leaves) and the sentiment that comes along with it from the Altenew Mini Monthly Himilayan Mayapple set that was just released today.

Coloring the flowers in different tones of watercolors makes them look a bit different, and then rotating them slightly also helps mix things up. You can really create a nice bouquet this way.

Finally, stamping the flower (and leaf) outline on the card base gives a coordinating feel to the card, and fills up that empty space.

Big sets are of course fun to play with, but the small sets can give really good results as well.

Great news, you don't even have to buy this stamp set! Just make any purchase at Altenew and it will be added to your order for free! Whoo-hoo! But hurry, only thru 1/28.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Pinkfresh Studio January 2024 Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

2024-01-26T08:00:00.321-05:00

Hello Friends! How, just how, can Pinkfresh keep coming out with amazing products month after month? IDK, but I'm happy they do, especially the delightful new alpha die set!

You may have come from the lovely Karin, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Pinkfresh Studio.

This beauty features the Heart of Gold Stamp, Die, Stencil. In addition to the lovely bird in the lemon tree, it comes with several useful sentiments, with dies that cut closely around all the letters. I love this look, since usually I forget about the sentiment until the end and by then I don't want to cover up the design I worked so hard on lol. The small die allows you to sneak the sentiment on.

Here's a look at the new Julieta Alpha Die Set in gold glitter paper. It was a great chance to add an XOXO to the sentiment of "sending love," and nicely filled an empty space I had in the corner.

To make the main bird/branch image stand out, I die cut another piece in vellum and added that to the background. I think it registers as something extra, without being overwhelming. An OG Shaker Heart Die is in the background to help the bird stand out.

I've recently been enamored with the four-panel cards that Yana Smakula has been making, there's something so visually pleasing, balanced, full, and flexible about them that really speaks to me.

I embossed the sentiments from the Heart of Gold Stamp set in gold, cut the LOVE letters from Julieta Alpha Die Set, and arranged them on 2 1/8" x 2 3/4" rectangles of cardstock.

Then I just adhered them on the card base. Love, love (no pun intended) this look, and think it's great for a less-feminine card since there are no hearts, flowers, etc.

Gah! Those letters cut in gold foil!!!

Now I'm on a roll and want to use some of my leftover rectangles. A simple gold embossing of the Heart of Gold Stamp, another Shaker Heart Die (from Target glitter wrapping paper 50% off after Christmas a couple weeks ago!!), and those amazing Julieta Alpha Dies and you've got a great card!

The empty O was begging to be filled with some gems : )

Really loved how these turned out!

Ok, so ONE MORE lol!

For this one I extended the designs beyond the rectangle and trimmed them off, including the larger Shaker Heart Die and the Sending Love Stamp, Die.

I agree with Yana and think this is a great way to break down the design of a card, and an idea you can use for any type of stamp or die set, any theme, any occasion, etc.

OK, one final card from me. This one uses two cuttings of the Sending Love Stamp, Die, Stencil, Hot Foil set on the top and bottom, a stenciled stripe in between, and the Julieta Alpha Die Set.

I backed the SWEET alpha dies with gold foil dies, slightly offset.

The sentiment originally had the word "SWEET" in it, so I just removed that and spelled out SWEET with the alphas instead. An easy way to customize your sentiment.

Thanks for taking a look today - I really enjoyed working with all of these products!

Prizes

We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel, as well as a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop. Comment along the hop for chances to win. All winners will be posted on February 5, 2024 on the GIVEAWAY PAGE, make sure to check within 2 weeks!

We've got a fantastic FREEBIE up for grabs this week in celebration of our January release! All orders $30+ before shipping will receive a FREE Folk Art Slimline stencil set, valued at $19! It's a great week to pick up some of our brand new products or shop from your wish list. 😉 This freebie is only available WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

PLEASE NOTE: You do not need to add the stencil set to your cart, nor is there a discount code. Our warehouse team will manually add the free stencil set to all eligible orders when shipping.

Your next stop is the one and only Lea who has amazing things to share!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

-Kelly

Supplies Used (thanks so much for supporting my blog with free-to-you affiliate links):

Julieta Alpha Die Set

Sending Love Stamp, Die, Stencil, Hot Foil

Heart of Gold Stamp, Die, Stencil

Shaker Heart Dies

Altenew Card Using Tube Watercolors

2024-01-25T09:00:00.001-05:00

Hi Friends! We're having an Instagram hop to celebrate using watercolors with Altenew, and thought I'd post my card featuring the Tranquility Rose set here as well.

This card was created with the tube watercolors from Artistry by Altenew. Normally I use the pan watercolors, but when using the tubes I love that I can squeeze them out on my acrylic stamping block, mix a few different colors, and use them for as long as I'd like. If they dry and harden, I easily activate them again with a bit of water.

The other bonus is that they have a much greater intensity than the pan watercolors I use. Love the results!

Have you ever given tube watercolors a try?

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

Altenew January 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

2024-01-10T09:00:00.267-05:00

Hi Friends! The holidays are barely over and already the inspiring new releases start, including the new Altenew January Release! I had a lot of fun as you can see ...

You may have hopped over from the lovely and talented Mindy Eggen, but if not feel free to start this blog hop at the beginning with Altenew.

Let's start with a pretty flat card, featuring the Mega Blossom Stencil Set. It always amazes me how much "oooh and ahhh" you can get from just a humble set of [well-designed] stencils!

I used this floral stencil three times, and then added a fourth rendering of the leaf tip on the upper left to fill the card space.

To further fill the space, I loosely added dots in the empty spaces with the OG Feeling Dotty stencil, which is probably my most-used stencil in my craft room! You can see some dots bled into the large leaf, but don't stress, totally fine for this casual garden look.

This card features two new goodies! The Dynamic Duo: Floral Whimsy and the Outlined Love You die.

These flowers are a bit unique in that the stamped image is only the centers! The included stencil set provides you the overall flower shape and then you just stamp the center. I love that this saves a bit of room in the stamp set (giving you more images/sentiments), but also is much more forgiving because you don't have to laboriously match up the stamp and stencil exactly. So smart! All of these flowers and leaves are from one round of the stencils and die. So many!

The Love You outline die is just beautiful in gold. It's wonderful how you can change up the colors underneath to coordinate with your card. There's no die for that, but I traced around the outline die and easily cut it out myself.

This is such a beautiful die! The Dear Heart Die gives you an elaborate "heart doily" to feature on your cards.

Since it's so finely detailed, there's not much else you need. I just cut two of the dies, adhered one directly to the center of the card, cut the other heart in half, and added each piece to the top and bottom.

Only thing missing is the sentiment. This one is from the new One Go Loving Sentiments Stamp Set and features several different loving thoughts, all meant to coordinate with the One Go Birthday Greetings Die. Like the title, "one go" and you've cut out 12 different sentiments!

After inking up the first heart on the prior card, it left such a nice impression on the background paper that I decided to make it into a simple card. I inked the second heart on a card front as a quick 2-for-1 set. After pulling away the heart die, I grabbed another one of the “one-go” sentiments and adhered it on. Done!

Finally, let’s kick it up a notch! Lots of impact here, but not necessarily lots of effort.

To make this I inked up two heart dies on one side only, folded them down the middle, and adhered them right next to each other on the card.

To me, this is the best kind of dimension on a card because it folds flat for mailing and storage.

Love the hint of color underneath. For the sentiment, you guessed it, I grabbed several of the leftover one-go sentiments. One is popped up higher than the others for a bit of focal point.

These were honestly such a fun and quick set of cards to make with the Dear Heart Die!

Finally, I leave you with a sneak peek for the February release ; ) Come back during next month’s hop for all the details!

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 01/17/2024 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 01/19/2024.

*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Your next stop in the hop is Michelle Short who has amazing projects to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by,

- Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links, thanks so much for your support of my blog!!)

Dear Heart Die

One Go Loving Sentiments Stamp Set

Mega Blossom Stencil Set

Outlined Love You die

Dynamic Duo: Floral Whimsy

Altenew February 2024 Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

2024-01-07T09:00:00.001-05:00

Project Kit - Graceful Gardenias

Splitting the giant gardenia in two was a good way to get something for the top and bottom of my card (vs just the middle).

For a second card I inked up the other gardenia in the Graceful Gardenias set and wanted to make a quick card out of it.

I stamped the gardenia first on the base of the card, and then used the coordinating die to place over the stamped image and sponge ink around it.

Giveaway Prizes

You've reached the end of the blog hop (congrats!) but if you'd like to revisit any of the stops, here is the complete list:

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

Colorado Craft and Anita Jeram - Winter Holiday Release

2023-11-29T06:00:00.230-05:00

Hello Friends! Just when you thought you'd seen all the cute and adorable Christmas and holiday stamps, there's a new release that's come to town from Colorado Craft Company featuring the ever popular Anita Jeram AND Kris Lauren artistry!

I'd love to share a few cards made with these goodies. You may have come from Kassi Hulet, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Adrienne Kennedy.

Come on, how can you NOT love this little guy "helping" with the presents under the tree!? He's from Furry Christmas and is ready to bring some holiday cheer to anyone on your list.

The tree is colored with a chartreuse and aqua watercolor to mix things up a bit. Since I wanted the focus to be on the long present I made it as RED as possible. The coloring of the dog is very similar to the back of the packaging - always a great place to start when you first color up an image.

There are a lot of good sentiments also included in this set, so I used two of them here. I like doubling up like that when it works out.

Another cutie, Christmas Obsessed features a build-your-own-scene set of stamps for you to decorate the twigs the mice came across in the snow. My intention was to stamp this on an A2 sided base and then die cut it smaller to create a few layers. When I was done coloring, I fell in love with the innocent simplicity so much that I decided to just leave it.

To spice it up a bit, I added chunky glitter to the snow mounds in the shadows.

Yep, a good old-fashioned one layer card. No border, no layers, just tons of white. And cute mice decorating their 'hood : )

Final set for me, this is one from Kris Lauren - Merry Christmoose!

The set has two different Christmoose's to choose from - I had to go with the one in the PJ one piece and the Santa slippers, naturally. Since the moose is rather tall and thin, I made him into a panel flap along the top of the card.

If you raise the panel flap you'll see the Christmas Background in its entirety. Super cute and easy to color since there are only a few different images.

Also forgot to mention I borrowed the dangling ornaments from Christmas Obsessed to decorate the moose's antlers, in the spirit of things. Or maybe they are festive earrings?

That's all for me today! I hope you enjoyed taking a look at the three cards.

Prizes!

We're doing two different giveaways! Enter as many times as you'd like until Dec 3rd. Winners announced on Dec 5th. Good luck!!

Giveaway 1: All designers will be giving away a stamp set from this release to a lucky winner that will be drawn from all the comments left on our blogs or instagram.

Giveaway 2:
We'll be giving away either the Anita Jeram complete release or the Kris Lauren complete release (your choice) to one randomly chosen winner that has placed an order using your favorite designer's affiliate link (for example, by clicking on the links on the images in this blog post below).

Now it's time to send you to the blog of Kelly Taylor who will astound you with something amazing (as always)!

Here's a complete list of stops on this hop if you need it:

Blog Hop:

IG:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies Used (including affiliate links, thanks so much for your support!)

Altenew October 2023 Marvelous Monthly Series Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!

2023-10-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

Hello! I sure enjoyed the latest Marvelous Monthly Release from Altenew - it's got a little holiday, a little birthday, a little floral, and a lot of FUN!

You may have come from the amazing Aga, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Altenew.

First up we have the beautiful Blushing Magnolias! The size of these blooms are giant, and I love how they fill the card,

The coloring stencils sure help with making light work of these blooms. With how big they are, the next time I'd like to try stenciling a tone-on-tone pattern in there too.

Such a statement flower, and I like how the die makes all the delicate branch cuts.

The Craft Your Life monthly kit Nordic Wonderland has a lot of fun details, that, once again, the coloring stencils really help getting colored.

I like that it's holiday themed with the Christmas tree, but the overall image, and this particular sentiment doesn't scream "Santa Claus Christmas." It's a nice alternative to things we may have created before.

This set also comes with a folksy fox. I didn't think much about what colors to use on the details but like how he turned out. You could totally get a different look each time you grab markers to color!

I added a black gem for his nose.

Love the bold sentiment that comes with the set.

Coordinated, but defiantly a different look from the same set.

Next up is the Snowy Delight Bundle which features a tree-filled background, and several snowmen interspersed. The great thing about this is that there is no guessing on how to balance out the scene - the coloring stencil perfectly places each tree and snowman for you!

For the trees I shaded a darker color for the bottom to give it some depth. The snowmen coverings just have two different shades of the same color to keep things simple.

To fill the space even more, I chose several sentiments and set them up on my misti so I could stamp multiples.

As you can tell in the background, it was quick to stamp multiples of this card design. Once I had it all set up, I think each card took a few minutes! I didn't want to put the stamps away, knowing I probably should have made a few more : )

You're certainly not limited to the layout on the stencils though! This card has a very different feel, but uses the same supplies. The background is made by coloring the trees, and then moving the stencil around the card and coloring some more trees until the background is filled.

I used the side of a label die for the snowy hill. Then arranged the snowmen around.

I like the "from our family to yours" sentiment that's included in this set, as you can include however many snowmen are actually in your family.

Same coloring, two different looks!

The final set Cut the Cake is a mini one, but certainly not mini on personality!

I chose to make my cake a rainbow cake, naturally. It went fairly quickly to stamp each layer in a light color and then top with a darker shadow.

The "cake" sentiment is so cute and sassy cut in gold.

Here's another take on the same set, and even the same slice of cake!

I used a mini-slimline card base, and repeatedly stamped the "you take the" sentiment on the background in varying generations. At the bottom I finished the sentiment with the "cake" die.

This is such a useful mini set, especially for teens and/or masculine cards. Because who doesn't love a layered cake?!

You've made it! Sure hope you found something you liked - there was a lot packed in this release!

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $50 gift certificate to 4 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 10/24/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 5 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 10/26/2023.

I'm happy to send you to the next stop on this hop, the one-and-only Jaycee!!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links included, thanks so much for your support!)

Anita Jeram New Halloween Release - Too Cute to Spook!

2023-10-02T06:00:00.251-04:00

It's a Halloween spectacular at Colorado Craft Company this week - the new Anita Jeram Halloween sets have just dropped and I promise you will have trouble deciding which ones to invite into your craft space! They are all

You may have come from the blog of Kassi Hulet, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Adrienne Kennedy 3C.

The "ghosts" from The Bark Side don't quite realize they have paws and/or tail showing lol. They are nice and easy to fussy cut though, so that's what I did to pop them off a Halloween-inked background.

I used three of the different sentiments here - good to have options!

The postage stamp format was a good way to get several ghosts on the card at once. I colored the postage stamp border gray so the white ghosts will pop more. To fill the spaces I used one of the tiny bat stamps from another set - it's a little detail but I think it adds a lot.

After creating this background with the haunted house from Happy Haunting, I thought something white would pop nicely. Hmm ... yep, the Bark Side ghosts fit the bill perfectly! I plucked a ghost off the prior card to see what it looked like before making another ghost, but these ghosts are so easy to make since there's hardly any coloring on them that I didn't really need to do that.

I thought I was smart in stamping this spooky scene on gray paper and then coloring in the sections with gray copic markers, but then I turned the packaging over and saw that's basically how Anita used this image (PSA for using the back of the stamp set packaging to get coloring ideas for the Anita Jeram stamps - they always show the main images colored in!)

I appreciate how you can achieve a nicely detailed background without a ton of coloring work on this one.

My next card HAS a ton of coloring work ...

Instead of stamping a few of the different Halloween characters inside frames on the slimline like I did with the End of Summer Fun release, I just stamped them directly on the card base. Nothing like throwing caution to the wind, amiright?!

I do like how it turned out with so many different critters, who all obviously coordinate together. We've got the three critters on top representing Halloween Party, The string of lights and pumpkins from Pumpkin Patch, and the cat witches from Happy Catoween.

It's like a needlepoint sampler, but on a card. This is a great way to break in a new set too - try to use as many of the images as possible on the card.

These last two cards use the stamps from the two sets who have large scaled critters - big enough to be the main image. This one is from Wizard Treats.

These two treaters venture out on their own with the lantern to guide them under a sky full of stars, as their parents sob quietly in the background because they are finally old enough to trick-or-treat without them (or so I hear).

I do enjoy the large size of these images. You only get one main image, but the fact that it's big enough to cover the entire card base makes it a winner.

Added together a few sentiments and popped the sweet pair of treaters.

My final card has no black or charcoal spaces. It's a very light and cheerful Halloween card. Fish skeleton guy has two different candy baskets he can hold. This card features the trick-or-treaters from Trick or Treating Cats.

I do enjoy having the fallen leaves on this image - I wouldn't have thought to stamp those like this but I sure love how it turned out!

I wanted to get both sentiments on this card, but it was going to be a bit crowded. So I stamped the bottom sentiment on vellum instead. This will let you play with the positioning a bit more, and it also comes in handy if you need to overlap the design.

Prizes!

We're doing two different giveaways! Enter as many times as you'd like until Oct 5th. Winners announced on Oct 6th. Good luck!!

Giveaway 1: All designers will be giving away a stamp set from this release (your choice) to a lucky winner that will be drawn from all the comments left on our blogs or instagram.

Giveaway 2:
We'll be giving away a complete bundle (value $202!!) of this release to one randomly chosen winner that has placed an order using your favorite designer's affiliate link (for example, by clicking on the links on the images in this blog post below).

Now it's time to send you to the delightful blog of Kelly Taylor who has something boo-tastic to share with you!

Here's the complete list of blogs and instagram pages in our hop if you need it:

Kelly Taylor
Nancy Sheads

Noga Shefer
Traci Jenkins

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links, thanks for your support!)

Trick or Treating Cats

The Bark Side

Artistry by Altenew 2023 Watercolor Tubes Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

2023-09-27T09:00:00.270-04:00

Hello Friends! Want to up your watercolor game? Try something new? Or maybe you've been using watercolor tubes for awhile now and already know how awesome they are to work with. Exciting news, the fine folks at Artistry by Altenew have just released their own curated set of watercolor tube colors!

You may have come from the lovely Aga on this blog hop, but if not feel free to come from our amazing host, Artistry by Altenew (different from Altenew)

I honestly had the best time playing with these Watercolor Tubes. They aren't a medium I typically use, so this was a fun exercise to me. The two things I really love are

the vibrancy of colors - this was all done with one or possibly two coats in areas. These specific tubes are formulated to have less binding agents and more actual pigments than others, and
the ability to reuse them - the paint you squeezed out of the tube will become solid over time, so if you have to stop in the middle of painting, no worries. Just use your wet brush on the solid paint and continue painting! These have also been tested to reactivate quicker than others.

Palette Perfection

I picked my FAVORITE floral set at Altenew - Precious Peony Stamp Set. Aside from being beautiful, of course, the flowers are large enough to be able to play with color a bit, but not too large that you need to be expert at playing with color. There are also three different main clusters to stamp so you can really mix up the looks you get.

For the Peonies I used mostly Toluidine Red with little bits of Permanent Yellow Deep mixed in. Those darks are so wonderfully dark.

Turning the stamp upside down is a nice trick to fill the space on the bottom of the card. It coordinates, and you don't need to color it. You can do this with the same exact stamp, or this Precious Peony Stamp Set comes with a second main image to use.

The nice, blocked Happy Birthday sentiment is from Note for You Stamp Set.

This card uses the third main image in the Precious Peony Stamp Set.

This time I was a little more adventurous and mixed a few different custom colors for the bloom on top, still using the Toluidine Red with little bits of Permanent Yellow Deep. The bottom bloom just uses Quinacridone Magenta.

The Mix and Match Frames Die Set is another product on my Top Ten list. There are a lot of options to layer your frames on the card - this one uses the torn edge and the dotted/embossed edge.

Fine Watercolor Brushes

Let's also spend a minute on the Fine Watercolor Brushes. Did you notice in the pictures the middle section is wider? It's like a sculpted triangle, and it's SO COMFORTABLE to use! They come in a set of 5 different tips, and the best news is they are FREE if you spend at least $59!! But it's only for today, Wed. Sept 27th. Then they are back to being $15.99.

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, ArtistrybyAltenew is giving away ONE $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $40 gift certificate to FIVE winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 10/03/2023 for a chance to win. ArtistrybyAltenew will draw 6 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 10/05/2023.

*The winner of the $100 gift certificate will be chosen from comments left on the Altenew blog.

Next Stop

Here's the link to the rest of the wonderful designers on this hop - you're going straight to Svitlana who's got some wonderful artistry to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Supplies Used (affiliate links, thanks for your support):

Palette Perfection

Fine Watercolor Brushes

Mix and Match Frames Die Set

Precious Peony Stamp Set

Note for You

Colorado Craft Company STAMPtember Release - Use Those Tiny Stamps!

2023-09-26T11:24:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends! Do you sometimes overlook those tiny stamps that come with your sets? I do all the time, and often need to remind myself to use them. They might not seem like a big deal individually, but when you can add them to the main image they often enhance, or at least give you some different looks.

Here's a good example. This is from the new My Muse set for the Colorado Craft Company STAMPtember release. The main image of the little mouse artist is adorable, and it's amazing how well he can paint with that giant brush he found!

You can see the extra tiny roses included - on this card I used them to stamp a coordinating background on the card base. Since I stamped the main image on a smaller panel, I wanted something to show behind it - either another cardstock layer, or in this case the stamped background.

For this card I used the tiny stamps to add to the floral masterpiece Mr. Mouse created. It really fills whatever space you have nicely. You could make the whole card floral if you wanted - the choice is entirely up to you!

I just noticed the stamp and die set is sold out already, but as of now the My Muse Stamp Set is still available.

Hope you're having a great week! Thanks for stopping!!
-Kelly