Notable Nest: December 2021

Friday, December 17, 2021

Altenew NEW Year-End Celebration Collection Release Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in total prizes)

Hello Friends! I'm always a fan of a good stand-alone die, and love that Altenew has special releases featuring just stand-alone dies. This is one of those releases, and I'm happy to spotlight the giant cake, and the 3D rose dies, among others!

December 2021 Stand Alone Dies

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

At first I was thinking wedding cake for this Celebrate with Cake Die Set, but weddings (hopefully) only happen once ... anniversaries are every year! Wedding or 50th golden anniversary, a white cake looks fantastic as a focal image for your card!

Celebrate with Cake Die Set

I have a tip if you're going all white for the cake. Use an embossing folder with fine details and scrolls, like this Ornamental Feature 3D Embossing Folder (yikes, there's only one left!) to add detail to the sides. It's the perfect way to get the feel of cakes decorated with white icing, and a fondant layer on top!

Since this is a tall slimline card, and because I wanted more of the embossed/icing side of the cake to show, I raised the icing layer higher than it's meant to be.

Two more things to note: 1) each layer is decorated with vines that come with the set, and a tiny stenciled flower and leaf from an older floral set, and 2) check out that gold foil cake plate with the black base!

The Fancy Yay Die is fun and festive! I love the giant scrolly tail on the "y" so you have somewhere to layer a secondary sentiment ("happy anniversary").

Finally, I layered two of the Nested Slim Labels Dies for something different under the cake and sentiments.

I wasn't sure how this Mini Rolled Rose Die Set was going to turn out, but boy am I glad I tried it! Gorgeous!!

Of course it's not going to fit in a standard envelope, but if you're giving the card in person (yay that we can do that now!!) what a great way for it to stand out. Literally!

I blended ink on paper in a gradient fashion, keeping in mind how big the die is. Then after cutting, you just grab the end with a tweezers or your hand, twirl around itself, and hot glue on the bottom. Couldn't be easier!

And bonus, the serrated green leaves come with this set too!

The panel the flowers are on is the new Mega Stamp Frames Die Set. If you look at the bottom, the edge resembles a postage stamp edge. Perfect way to frame anything, really. Another bonus, the die cut words also come with this set.

Free Gift

Get a FREE brand new Year-End Celebration Mini Inspiration Guide with every order from 12/17/2021 through 12/19/2021. Shop HERE!
Get a FREE brand new Year-End Celebration Stamp & Die Release Inspiration Guide (worth $5.99) with every order of high-value Year-End Celebration Bundles. Shop HERE! *Exclusions apply.

Giveaway Prizes

$300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $25 gift certificate to 8 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post by 12/23/2021 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 10 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 12/25/2021.

I am now pleased to send you to Norine Borys who has several classy and charming cards to share with you!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

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

Celebrate with Cake Die Set

Fancy Yay Die

Mega Stamp Frames Die Set

Mini Rolled Rose Die Set

Nested Slim Labels Die Set

Monday, December 13, 2021

Pinkfresh Studio December 2021 Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

Hello and welcome to the Pinkfresh December new release! There's a fun mix of florals, unique images, thoughtful sentiments, essential dies, and new bling!

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

Let's start with the florals, thoughtful sentiments and essential dies ...

This adorable mini slim features a panel cut with Blanket Stitch Slimline and Mini Slimline Rectangle Dies to give it that wonderful texture around the entire edge.

The florals are from the Citrus Bloom Stamp family of products (die and stencils are also offered, thank goodness). The other day I was looking thru my cards and realized I like to stick with lighter colors, so I mentally made a note to push myself to use some of the neglected darker colors now and then. The dark Stargazer navy/purple surprisingly turned out to be a perfect grounding element for the stem and base of the flowers.

The nice thing about the Citrus Bloom Stamp is that it features citrus fruit in addition to the flowers, which allows you to introduce different color palettes like the yellow/green for the lemons and limes.

If you're looking for a good set of unique and meaningful sentiments, I think you're going to like the Always Uplifting stamp set. Aside from artfully arranging the text and font, the content of the phrases is quite engaging.

One tip in using these and other sentiments with a mix of typeface and script font is to stamp the fonts in different colors. In this case, the typeface font is stamped in black, and the script is embossed in gold. I don't cut the stamp apart to do this, just carefully ink up each section.

Here's a unique focal point image, a house (from the Built on Dreams Stamp)! The outline is simply rendered, but the inside of the house is filled with beautifully scrolling flowers and vines. And thanks to the Built on Dreams Layering Stencil they are easy to color!

I added some hand-cut clouds that I used as a mask and stenciled over, and then included another set of sentiments from Always Uplifting on the top and bottom of the card. Love how easy they are to integrate with your existing sentiments, like this "thank you."

Did you notice the new bling on both cards? That would be the Metallic Pearls: Sparkling Champagne! They have a darker base than the gold, and give off several different colors in the reflections. It's good to step outside my gold comfort zone now and then!

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, so comment along the hop for more chances to win. The winners will be posted on December 21, 2021 on the GIVEAWAY PAGE, so check back and claim any prize within 2 weeks. GOOD LUCK!!

I'm now pleased to send you to none other than Laura Bassen where you'll be wowed with beautiful projects!