Granny Squares, Times Three! New Concord and 9th

 

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!

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

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:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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!

 

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:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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