Rainbow Birthday Cake from the Colorado Craft Company

Hi Friends! These rainbow cakes have been popular on pinterest for probably a decade now, and I thought it would be fun to make one ... on a card!

The stamp set is from the Big & Bold line of the Colorado Craft Company, and is called appropriately enough Birthday Cake. I love the sentiment that comes with this set ... "Let's celebrate something today ... so we can have cake" YES! Fabulous plan! I love to eat cake!!

True story: I picked my youngest son up from a birthday party today. The birthday boy's mom offered all the other parents there some birthday cake. Every single parent said no thanks. Guess who happily took the piece of cake?! Yumm : )

Each layer of cake is watercolored, and then dotted with the same color, only with less water so that the color is a little more intense. I also made several dots with a white gel pen.

After masking off the cake, I brushed the background with ink. I thought it still looked a little plain, so I went searching for a smaller stamp to fill the space. As soon as I saw the sketchy wheel stamp from Essentials by Ellen Wonky Backdrops I knew that was the perfect choice. It's fun, it's modern, it's got a lot of energy, and it actually looks like an aerial view of sliced cake!

I've really been loving these larger scale stamps that have come on the market recently. This birthday cake has seen a lot of use already, with all the teenage birthday cards I make. So happy to have it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly

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

Birthday Cake, Colorado Craft Company Clear Stamps Wonky Backdrops By Julie Ebersole, Essentials By Ellen Clear Stamps 36 Pan Set, Altenew Watercolor Paint Green Tea, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad Tiara, Catherine Pooler Ink Pad Uni-ball Impact Gel Pen, White

Altenew February 2020 Stencils/Decals/Stand-alone Dies Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi Friends! I'm looking forward to sharing all the fun I had playing with the brand new Altenew stencils and stand-alone dies, and different ways to use them!

You may have come from Maryam Perez but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew Card Blog.

Let's take a look!

1) Bursting Dahlia Stencil

Color blending and stencils are made for each other. The large petals on this Bursting Dahlia Stencil not only cover your cards quickly, but really allow you to have fun with different blending techniques and colors.

After blending some yellow, orange and fuchsia inks for the flowers around the card, I spritzed some water on the blooms and covered it with a paper towel to blur the edges where it's being soaked up. To fill the spaces in between the blooms, the clusters of dots (meant for the center of the flower) do double duty as fillers. 

Same colors for the dahlias on this card, but do you notice the difference in these blooms? After blending ink through the stencil, I rotated the stencil and blended ink through a second time.  This gives the flower a much fuller look, and allows you to get interest via layering the inks.

One of the new dies is a great set of words in this bold geometric and modern font, the Bold Greetings Die Set (a cheaper die set at only $7.) Love how it looks in gold!

One more, shall we?! This time it's a full-on bloom, with layered ink blending, to show you how large-scale the image really is. This allows you to focus on just one flower in the middle of your card, or ink several partial florals, depending on the look you're going for. I've also inked some leaves that come with this stencil.

 

And how about this new sentiment die?! The Fancy For You Die really takes center stage here. I like that it's a large die that covers the card, yet it's not a particularly bold or thick die. Lots of room to still see the rest of the card. And again, in gold ... love the gold!

Such a bright and bold collection of dahlias! 

2) Tranquil Wings Stencil

Just like the dahlia, this Tranquil Wings Stencil is another great option for showcasing your ink blending skills. Pick a few different colors and see what you get! 

For this card, I decided to cut out the moth since it's such an easy shape. This way you can adhere it down the middle to your card base, and bend the wings up on either side.

Did you notice the dotted texture on the moth?! Really loving the Dotted Starburst Debossing Die and how it brings this little fellow to life. I can see using this debossing die on lots of different projects!

The sentiment is another one from the new Bold Greetings Die Set.

Finally, the shape of the card base is made with the Nesting Frames Die Set. Such a cute shape that's close to a rectangular shape, but has a little pizzazz to it too. 

3) Wild Leopard Stencil

I used the new Wild Leopard stencil to create one of my favorite fabric patterns ... camouflage. One of my favorite shirts has fun pink and gray camo sleeves, so I used that for my inspiration on this card. After masking off the bottom, I blended ink through the stencil a few times in a dusty pink and a tan.

The The Fancy For You sentiment is mounted on the new Fine Frames Square Die Set.

 

Here's a similar card, with the square, blended ink center, and this time with the DIY camo going down both sides of the card. 

A fun look with minimal effort!

Thanks so much for checking out all my cards! I really enjoyed playing with the new stencils (especially the dahlia and moth), and know that the Bold Greetings Die Set will get a ton of use on my cards!

Prizes:
To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by 3/3/2020 for a chance to win.

We'll also draw a winner to recieve a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer's blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew blogs on 3/6/2020.

Your next stop on this hop is the extremely talented (and very sweet) Norine Borys!

Thanks for stopping by!
-Kelly

Supplies Used (click on the photos for affiliate links to the products; thanks for your support of my blog and projects!)

Bursting Dahlia Stencil

Tranquil Wings Stencil

Wild Leopard Stencil

Fine Frames Square Die Set

Fancy For You Die

Dotted Starburst Debossing Die

Bold Greetings Die Set

Nesting Frames Die Set

Altenew Paint-A-Flower: Rose Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

I'm so happy to be a part of the second blog hop in celebration of a new product line from Altenew, the Paint-a-Flower series! You may have come from the blog of  Svitlana Shayevich but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew blog.   

Paint-a-Flower: Rose

This set is the Paint-a-Flower: Rose and it's a gorgeous floral outline set with some beautiful sentiments as a bonus.

Here I've stamped the long floral strip going across the top of the card, and then stamped the single rose cluster going down the middle of the card. Having two distinct floral clusters really lets you have a lot of flexibility with how you want your finished design to fill the space. I think it looks like it could be one floral stamp on this card.

To color these gorgeous  roses I used the Altenew watercolors, and then like Kathy Racoosin says, got into the nooks and crannies with colored pencils. This is still quite a learning process for me, so I was quick to sign up for my friend Emily's new Artists Watercolor 101 for Paper Crafters class! Such great timing, as this class is actually going on right now!! Of course, you can watch the videos at any time once you buy it, but if you enroll now you get a chance to ask Emily questions each day, as well as win some prizes.

I added a few gold spatters, as well as a few sequins.

Finally, I love the mix of fonts on the sentiments in this set! To accentuate this, I chose to stamp the scripted portion of the sentiment in a coordinating color.

Subscription:
There is a monthly subscription plan for the Paint-A-Flower. When signed up, you are guaranteed a spot in our monthly Paint-A-Flower releases and will receive a set each month - at a specially discounted price! ($15.99 →$12.99)

Prizes:

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 6 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or Altenew Scrapbook Blog by 3/2/2020 for a chance to win.

We’ll also draw a winner to receive a $15 gift certificate from the comments left on each designer’s blog on the blog hop list below. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Card Blog on 3/2/2020.

Next Stop:
The next stop on this hop is one of my dear friends Virginia Lu, and I bet she's got something amazing to wow you with!

Thanks so much!
-Kelly


Supplies used (affiliate links included, thanks so much for your support of my blog and projects!)

Pinkfresh Studio February 2020 Background Stamp Release Blog Hop

Hi Friends! I am super excited and honored to be hopping along with the Pinkfresh team to celebrate the February Background stamp release!  You may have come from the blog of TaeEun Yoo but if not feel free to start at the beginning with Pinkfresh Studio.

Because these stamps are on a rubber base, they are amazingly detailed and stamp so crisply. You'll certainly see how much I love these stamps, as there are LOTS OF CARDS to share! Let's get started!!

 1)  Diamond Tiles Stamp

This diamond background stamp will absolutely be a workhorse in your craft room stash. Wait until you see what it can do!

This background was created by stamping twice, off-set randomly. I love how it introduces just the right amount of color, but also lets the vase and flowers be the focal point.

The vase and flowers are from the Floral Vase set, the mat is cut with my absolute favorite panel die of all time, from the Diagonal Stitched Rectangles die set.

The next several backgrounds have all been stamped with specific measurements, which I'll share so you'll be able to recreate these patterns yourself.

I was so excited with how this pattern turned out, I actually brought it upstairs to show my husband! This gorgeous rainbow pattern is created with four different impressions of the stamp in pink, orange, citron, and aqua. After stamping the first color (using my misti stamp positioner) I moved my card base 3/16" to the left, stamped the second color, moved the card base 3/16" to the left, and so on for all four colors. 

The 3/16" spacing in between each color is just enough to slightly overlap each stripe by the same amount. I love that the overlapped sections are slightly darker to really accentuate each individual diamond. The sentiment die is from the Essentials: Classic Words die set.

Here are two cute little birthday cards, both cut with the Diagonal Stitched Squares die. The feminine  background on the left is made by stamping the first color, then shifting the card base 6/16" and stamping the second color. This gives you a perfectly bisected grid pattern.

The masculine card on the right is made by stamping two colors 3/16" apart, and then also vertically shifting the card 3/16" for the third color. Totally different look.

And wouldn't you know this stamp coordinates perfectly with the new Pinkfresh 6x6 patterned paper pack?!

Hahaha, just kidding, no need to buy a paper pack when you can MAKE YOUR OWN! I'm particularly happy with how this turned out! This is where I went a little off the rails and challenged myself to make themed backgrounds. Can you see the holidays?! We've got Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween and Christmas.

These are all 4-color patterns, stamped by shifting the cardstock 3/16" to the left each time. Except for the 4th of July pattern on the lower left which is only 3 colors (and the last 3/16" section left white).

This is the St. Patrick's Day background, which happens to make a perfect masculine birthday card!

Another set! These are all Christmas plaid patterns. The top pattern is another 4-color 3/16" pattern. The left pattern is a 3-color 3/16" pattern. The right pattern is new ... it's a 3-color 4/16" pattern. This allows three stripes to perfectly co-exist without overlapping at all, while also covering the entire card base. So awesome! The bottom pattern is a 2-color 6/16" pattern.

All different. All festive.

You could easily create an army of different Christmas plaids by gathering all your green and red inks and stamping away while watching a movie.
 

The card uses the Ornate Oval Frame die with a sentiment from the Classic Words die set. The floral swag around the sentiment is from the newer Wildflower Sketches stamp set and is just what I needed to fill that empty space.

This background is yet ANOTHER different way to use this stamp! Two colors, but for the second color I turned the stamp 45 degrees before stamping. You can see that the pattern doesn't reach all the way to the ends, but I think that gives it a modern, quirky feel. The gold embossed florals are again from the Wildflower Sketches stamp set, and the sentiment is from the Classic Words die set.

With the piles of patterned paper you now have, what do you do with it? Here's an idea .. use it as a background for a cover plate die like the newer Folk Dance die.

Love seeing all those different colors peeking through the patterned holes! The love die is from the Phrase Builder: Sending die set.

Whew! That was a lot to digest, I know, but I really had fun experimenting with the different looks for the Diamond Tiles stamp. I know you will too!

2) Enchanted Blooms

This background stamp is multi-useful as well ... It can be a floral focal point like on the left card, or a subtle background like on the right card.

I watercolored a portion of the floral background and cut it with the Ornate Oval Frame die.

It's mounted on a Radiating Background 1 die and the sentiment is from the Phrase Builder: Sending die set.

This card uses the exact same supplies (Radiating Background 1 die, the Ornate Oval Frame die, and the Phrase Builder: Sending die set) but has a different look. The soft floral background pattern is perfect to give this card a modern-Victorian-romantic feel.

I cut the panel with the Diagonal Stitched Rectangles die set so that the ends are free to act like fringe on the card. I curled up several of the ends to exaggerate this look, knowing that its dimension that can easily be flattened to mail in an envelope.

3) Lemon Lush

Finally, how cute is this background? With all the coloring enthusiasts out there, this stamp is sure to be a popular one to pull out and try different techniques.

I trimmed the top off so I could add the sentiment over a white background

Finally, don't throw your hand-colored strip away, adhere it on the inside for a custom interior for your card.

PRIZES:

- One lucky person will win the entire release on the Pinkfresh blog, and on the Pinkfresh IG feed!

- I am also happy to give away a $25 gift card! Please leave a comment on this post to enter. 

The winners will be posted on Monday, February 24th on the GIVEAWAY PAGE. You must check that page & claim your prize within 2 weeks.

If you'd like to take advantage of the free shipping with $35 purchase, please use code FEBSHIPUSA, or FEBSHIPINTL for discounted international shipping. Offer expires on Feb 21st. 

Your next stop along the hop is my uber talented friend Channin Pelletier's blog!

Thank you so much for letting me share all my projects with you!
Kelly



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

Diamond Tiles Stamp

Enchanted Blooms

Lemon Lush

Abstract Cube

Radiating Background 1 Die

Ornate Oval Frame Die

Diagonal Stitched Squares

Wildflower Sketches Dies

Wildflower Sketches

Phrase Builder Dies

Folk Dance Die

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