Proud to be American; Proud of our Country!

Hello Friends! How strange is it that I paused with the title of this post, thinking it might be too political or controversial for this little card-making blog?!? Crazy times! But I did want to "stand out on a limb" and say how proud I am of these United States of America. There are certainly many things that need to be changed, always will be, but the fact that we can have healthy discussions openly and freely is something that I am especially grateful for. 

>>> Oh, how RARE & Beautiful you are <<<

Speaking of rare and beautiful, we're sharing more goodies from the new Pinkfresh Studio release today over on Instagram with a big hop and lots of prizes!

This shaker uses the new Essentials Shaker Stars and the older (from last month, hahaha) Rare and Beautiful set.

Check out the details on these dies!! LOVE! Did you notice that the star AND the star opening BOTH have the stitching around them? If you look closely you'll see I added the smaller star die to the background of the large blue shaker. Those details are just too good not to use!

Also, I'm happy with the triple gold embossing on the sentiment. For the thicker fonts, I love the look you get with multiple layers of embossing. You just have to touch it!

This is the first time I'm using the Crystals and am so impressed with how clear and sparkly they are. And the red is so deep and luxurious!

The overall design is inspired by the American flag, of course, with the stars on top and the stripes on bottom. Originally I just had the ink blending and it looked too plain. Once I added the stars and stripes it felt a lot better.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Appreciate it!
-Kelly

 

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

 

Essentials Shaker Stars Die Set

Mini Slimline Essentials Die Set

Rare and Beautiful Stamp Set

Rare and Beautiful Die Set

 

Winner! Winner!

Hello! Hello! First I must apologize for not posting this earlier, but I am happy to announce a winner for the Colorado Craft Company new Anita Jeram release!

I took a spin on the random number generator and got ...

 

 Comment #134, which is the lucky ...

Congrats Jen!!!

Jenski27, please send me an email at griglion@ameritech.net with the title "Colorado Craft Company WINNER!" and I'll get you hooked up with the $25 gift certificate!

Everyone else, hope you were able to pick up some goodies, and have been able to start working on your adorable projects already! If not, never too late to take another look at what's available from the new Anita Jeram release (wink, wink!)

Thanks for stopping by!  Always appreciate your delightful comments : )
-Kelly

Pinkfresh Studio May Essentials Release - New Card Size!! Mini Slimline!

Hi Friends! It's always fun to share new products with you, but today we get to share a new card format! The mini slimline!! I am madly in love! It's the cutest size, just like a little pamphlet, and the smaller size makes filling the space so much easier, yet there's still plenty of room to write your message inside. 

You may have arrived on the blog hop from Keia Shipp-Smith, but if not feel free to start with the Pinkfresh Studio Blog.

Mini Slimline Essentials Die Set

This mini slimline card is 3 1/4" x 6 1/4" and has a Mini Slimline Essentials Bundle Pack with everything you need, including two types of stitched mat sets! This card uses the horizontal stitching rectangle die, but there's also a diagonal stitched rectangle die, both in several different sizes.

There are two different Blanket Stitched Oval Dies and each one cuts an oval and an oval hole. I used the smaller oval hole here to have the Joyful Peony pop through, and the larger oval shape to outline it. LOVE all that texture around the oval!

I curved the sentiment to follow the shape of the oval and embossed it in gold.

The patterned paper on the front and inside the card is from the Happy Blooms 6x6 Paper Pad. 

 

TIP: Looking for an easy way to pick coordinating papers? Flip the paper over! The diamond patterned paper inside the card is actually the reverse side of the pink floral pattern on the front. Love this trick, as you're sure to get a well-matched patter without much thought or second guessing!

Did you notice the MATCHING ENVELOPE underneath the card?! So darn cute!! There's a Mini Slimline Envelope Die for this! The paper used for this envie, as well as the next two envies are from the Some Days 12x12 Paper Pack.

This card shows what both of the diagonal stitched mini slimline rectangles look like together on a card. Love the layers!

My new favorite edge is the Folk Edge Circle Die Set! What a great mix of stitching and tiny holes! I haven't seen anything like it on the market. I used one of the smaller circles in this set to cut a slit for me to stick the floral stems thru.

The flowers are leftovers from one set of the Be Strong Stamp/Die/Stencil set ... this is the third card I've made with the dies from this set, and I've still got one floral bunch left. Such a useful set, I've kept it out on my desk! Added epoxy dots for good measure.

I layered the main sentiment on top of the larger secondary sentiment to make it a little more interesting.

Finally, this card uses the Diagonal Stitched Rectangle die to cut the panel, with the Be Strong image stamped on the die cut. Once I adhered the bottom Butterfly to the panel I die cut the Diagonal Stitched Rectangle again to make it stay in the background.

The layered circle die cuts are also from the Mini Slimline Essentials Die Set. So many different combinations possible. I embossed one of the sentiments from the Butterflies set (which unfortunately is still out of stock, but will be restocked in early June, so keep checking back! Such a great set).

Just the body of the butterfly is glued down, so you can fold out his wing. More 12x12 double sided Some Days paper was used to make the cute ccoordinating envelope.

 GIVEAWAYS:

-We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel!

-We will also be giving away a total of TEN $25  gift cards along the hop!! Please comment 

on each post to be entered. Winners will be posted on May 31 , 2021 on our 

GIVEAWAY PAGE and must be claimed within 2 weeks.

SHOPPING PROMO:

We are offering free US shipping on all orders $50+ from May 24th to May 30th.
Please refer to the graphic above for the code that applies to you.

We also have a free die that will be automatically added to all orders over $35 -
no code needed!

Your next stop is the extremely talented Kelly Lunceford! 

Here's the entire blog hop list:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Thanks so much for stopping by! If you liked my projects today I'd love to share more with you ... follow my blog and instagram to keep updated!

Blessings,
Kelly

 

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

Essentials Mini Slimline Envelope Die Set

Mini Slimline Essentials Die Set

Essentials Folk Edge Circle Die Set

Essentials Blanket Stitched Oval Die Set

Jewels Lavender

Be Strong Stamp Set

Be Strong Layering Stencil Set

Be Strong Die Set

Celebrating You Stamp Set

Celebrating You Die Set

Joyful Peonies Cling Stamp

Joyful Peonies Die

Joyful Peonies Layering Stencil Set

Butterflies Stamp Set

Butterflies Stencil Set

Butterflies Die Set

Some Days 12x12 Paper Pack

Happy Blooms 6x6 Paper Pack

 

Tiny Flower Dies, Too Fussy for this Lazy Crafter?!

Hi Friends! I have to admit, I'm in general a pretty lazy crafter. Which is odd because I do spend a lot of time on projects, but that's more because I do too much thinking about things vs. doing. So when I see a project that has a lot of tiny elements involved, I usually admire from a distance and take a pass for myself.  

Lily of the Valley Dies

But when I saw this set of dies from Spellbinders that makes a lily of the valley with those dainty white blooms, I was really curious how those arrowed stems were going to operate. It seemed like you could just slide the white flowers onto the stem and that would hold them. If that was the case, that would be so darn cool! I had to try these out.

Turns out yep, that's all you need to do!! I was so thrilled! Once you die cut the white flowers (all from the same die, no need to make multiple passes with a single die), you place them down on a foam surface and push down on the center with a stylus to make the flowers cupped. To be honest, I have no idea where my stylus went, it's been awhile! So I just used the other end of my paintbrush and that worked just as well.

Then you squish the arrows on the stem with a pliers, and slip each flower over an arrow.

I was so happy with how they turned out, I decided to make two more stems! Then I arranged all three of them into a box card with double sided paper.

Here's an aerial look at how the stems are arranged and adhered behind each of the "rows" in the box.

Not a lot else needed here, aside from a sentiment. I used the Happy Day etched and layered dies and then wrote out "Mother's" with a white gel pen on a strip of green paper to turn this into a Mother's Day card.

Hope you can see how easy this was to get such a cool effect!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
-Kelly

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

Lily of the Valley Dies

 

Happy Day Die