Thursday, August 27, 2020

Spellbinders Marvelous Mermaids Interactive Card

Hello Folks! I love interactive cards, and the new Marvelous Mermaid from Spellbinders with moveable joints (including the tail and fin!!) is a ton of fun to play around with.

The set comes with stamps for the head, hair and body features, as well as dies for all the different body parts. I'm a big fan of all those tiny scales on the tail! With glitter paper behind them, it really draws attention.

Being able to position the arms is great for having the mermaid point to the sentiments and direct your eye across the card.

Moveable body parts also makes the mermaid so much easier to fit onto the size of card you have. With this slimline card I was able to move her into a very narrow shape to stay within the card base.

The body parts connect easily with brads. The die punches tiny holes that you match up and slide the brad through.

An add-on set to this mermaid is the Bubble Palace die and stamp that I've used on the bottom of the card for the background. You can use just the stamp, just the die, or combine them both like I've done here. Between all the texture of this background die, the texture of the scales, and the moveable body parts, there's a lot going on with this card. But I still feel it's a pretty clean card with all the white used.

I'm excited to give this to a favorite little girl. And let's be honest, I had a lot of fun myself just moving the mermaid around!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

Supplies Used: (affiliate links, which are free to you. thanks so much for your support!)

Marvelous Mermaid Stamp and Die Set

Bubble Palace

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Fun with Layered Dies - Spellbinders Kaleidoscope Plaid

Hi Folks! Layered dies are a favorite of mine since everything's been figured out for you already, and the new Kaleidoscope Plaid Etched Dies from the Spellbinders Sparking Christmas Collection are the latest in easy-to-assemble magic!

The three dies in the set combine to form an awesome plaid pattern when you layer them all together. These are released as part of the Christmas collection, but this is totally a die set you can use all year round. You are only limited by the colors you choose.

The die cut sentiment is one of several in the new Christmas Mix & Match Sentiments die set. It's such a nice, clean script font.

Here's how all the dies look layered together. Fun Christmas colors for a fun present, with some sparkle showing thru! Or, you can absolutely pick different colors to make presents for birthday, anniversary, graduation (use school colors).

You can make four of the plaid rectangles to completely cover an A2-sized card, or you can go the opposite way and cut them into a shape ...

Like a Christmas tree! For this guy I trimmed off two triangles from each side of the rectangle. Love how festive it looks, and think it's a great way to change things up.

For the background, I blended ink and then flicked a lot of water drops to get the snowy look. The snow drift is made by cutting a curved mask from copy paper and placing that on the card base before blending the ink.

What to do with the triangle plaid pieces removed? Toss them? No way!!

Put them together to form another tree!! Two for one! #winning

To hide the seams in the middle, and to make the design a little more interesting, I used one of the word dies and adhered that right over the seams. I like how the "C" in Christmas hangs off the base and makes a fancy little trunk for the tree.

I have to say I was really happy with how quickly these plaid designs came together. One tip in using this set of three dies is to cut all three dies on a colored sheet of paper three different times. That way you can quickly mix up the colors and get three different plaids.

Thanks so much for stopping by, as always!
- Kelly

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

Christmas Mix & Match Sentiments

Kaleidoscope Plaid Etched Dies

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Altenew Paint-A-Flower: Calla Lily Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hello Friends! We have a new Paint-a-Flower stamp set available at Altenew ... the Calla Lily! The nice thing about the Paint-a-Flower series is, aside from it being a gorgeous floral image to color, that it's a little less than half as expensive than the Build-a-Flower sets because these do not come with dies. So it's perfect for focusing on coloring techniques.

If you are currently hopping along, you may have come from the blog of Norine Borys, but if not feel free to start at the beginning at the Altenew Blog.

I'm still on my mission to build up sympathy cards, and I thought the sophisticated nature of the Calla Lily would be a perfect fit. So I got out my Altenew watercolors (which happen to be 20% off now) and started building layers of color.

Love how dark the purples came out. It looks very velvety.

Some black spatter seemed appropriate for a sympathy card, instead of my typical gold spatter.

Paint-a-Flower: Calla Lily

Giveaway Prizes:

To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $30 gift certificate to 5 lucky winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog by 8/27/2020 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 Winners Page on 08/30/2020.

Special Offer:

Get 20% off on the Watercolor Essential 12 Pan Set until 8/24/2020 at 11:59 PM EDT or while supplies last. Not valid on previous purchases. Shop HERE.

Your next stop on this hop is Lilith Eeckels with a fabulous project!

Thanks so much for stopping!
-Kelly

Here's the blog hop list:

Kelly Griglione <---You are here

Lilith Eeckels

Sidnie Desjardins

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Altenew Texture Adventure Stand-alone Dies Release Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi Folks! Dies are a staple for many paper crafters, and I know some of the latest dies from Altenew are going to be staples in your collection.

You may have come from the blog of Reiko Tsuchida, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with the Altenew blog.

There are so many fun new dies that I'm dying to show you in this Texture Adventure collection. I honestly can't pick a favorite!

Sure to be a staple, the new Featured Sentiments Die Set has a entire collection of different sized sentiment strips. The larger strips are meant to be layered underneath the smaller strips, or you can just use them for larger font sentiments.

Hot Tip: Be like the home improvement professionals and use a spacer between each row of your tiles! This will maintain an even space all the way through.

You can use these diecut strips without any sentiments at all, and just use the strips to build a fun background full of texture. The "hello" sentiment is from the Bold Greetings Die Set and has the perfect modern style to go with this card.

With all the amazing floral stamps that Altenew has, I'm always on the hunt for backgrounds that are interesting, but don't attract too much attention away from the flower. The new Layered Geo Cover Die A is absolutely PERFECT for this!

In addition to being gorgeous, it's a cover die and is all one piece, which means less work! Just one pass through the die cutting machine and you're good to go. The other great thing about this die is that it has a nice margin which is very useful for putting adhesive on to attach to the card base.

There is also a Geo Cover Die B that layers with this die. You can use them together for sure, but it also looks fabulous by itself if you want to save some money for other goodies!

One set I absolutely had to have in this release is the Leaf Mix Die Set ... it has no less than 14 different leaf shapes!!

I picked just one of the 14 shapes ... a very thin squiggly shape, and colored them all a rainbow of colors with markers. Then I secured them all in the middle with a giant brad and called it a day!

Bonus is I have 13 other leaf shapes I haven't even used yet! The panel is the Nesting Label Die and is always handy for showcasing a focal point.

I love making 3D elements for cards and other craft projects, because I love the invitation it extends to "touch me!" These Mini 3D Stars Dies are so fun because they have little tabs you bend back on one side of each point in the star, which gives you something to adhere it down with.

They go perfectly with the sentiments from the You're a Star Mini Stamp Set.

The background of this card features the new Stacked Diamonds Cover Die. This definitely checks a lot of boxes with being a great textured backgroud, and full of tiny details that would be impossible to create on your own,

Finally, I have a project that features the new Thin Frame 3D Die Set. This is great whenever you have a bulky project and want to protect the layers ... the frame will give it just the right amount of protection. And it looks really cool!!

Check out the embossed dots all along the outside of the frame ... such great detailing! And it matches the embossed dots from the background with the Dotted Starburst Debossing Plate.

The nice thing is you can use this just like a regular frame, especially if you use a wood-like patterned paper. I was able to use several layers of the BAF Canterbury Bells flower within this frame, and then stretch the "hugs" sentiment across the frame.

Another use for this die is to use it like an actual photo frame! It's the perfect size for a standard 4x6 photograph. You just have to trim a tiny bit off the long side of the photo. How fun would it be to make a gallery wall with several of these frames in a rainbow of colors?!

It also looks great with black & white photographs too! Another idea would be to use this for a gift topper. Print a photo of your friend, add the professional-looking frame around it, and attach the whole thing to the top of your wrapped gift (or hanging on the side of your gift bag!)

Special Offer

Receive a FREE brand new mini inspiration guide with every order from 8/19/2020 at 12:01 am EDT until 8/21/2020 at 11:59 pm EDT or while supplies last. Shop here -->https://altenew.com/collections/all-altenew-products The free gift will be added to cart automatically. *Not valid on Altenew Academy classes and workshops.

Giveaway 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 by 8/25/2020 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. All winners will be announced on the Altenew Winners Page on 08/27/2020.

Your next stop on this hop is the talented Erum Tasneem who has a lot of fun projects to share!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly

Products used (affiliate links used, thanks so much for your support!)