Notable Nest

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Adorable New Anita Jeram Mice for Mother's and Father's Day!!

Oh boy, I could not wait to share this giant release of utterly charming stamps illustrated by Anita Jeram for the Colorado Craft Company! It's such a blockbuster release, that we are having a star-studded blog hop to showcase it all!

You may have arrived from Kathy Racoosin, but if not feel free to start at the beginning with none other than Adrienne Kennedy (CCC).

All the illustrations are completely adorable, but this dear scene from the Amazing Mom Stamp Set is one of my favorites! The mama mouse juggling her kids while trying to entertain her baby with a make-shift toy from nature brought such a smile to my face!

I did some simple watercoloring, die cut the scene with the coordinating dies and die cut another layer from my husband's comic book backing boards for extra dimension.

The nice thing about the coordinating dies is that you can ink your background, and then put your focal point image on top of that, instead of messing around with masking an image. With an image as detailed as this, that would be difficult and take a lot of time.

I love that many of the sentiments are unique. You get a "Happy Mother's Day" in the set, but you also have, "It takes a strong woman to be a great MOM ... and you are the strongest ever!" Totally fits with our multitasking mouse mom.

The new Anita Jeram - For Dad Stamp set is another must-have. One of the images is a little mouse toddler jumping on his daddy's belly ... a true mark of a good and patient dad.

I'm sure you noticed the channel cut in the middle of the card. Yep, we've got some motion!

What a visual, right? Totally brings the scene to life! Boing, boing, boinggggg!!

If you're curious, I stoped crafting to take a couple photos of the process. I cut a channel in the card panel, and then cut the toddler mouse away from daddy mouse.

Then I made a long tab with a T at the end so the tab will stop. I added some thick mat board on either side of where the T will be moving up and down to keep the motion nice and straight. The large section that's cut away accomodates for the T at the end of the tab, and will put a limit on how high our toddler can jump.

This also allows the toddler to actually rest on dad's belly, instead of hovering over it.

I cut Happy Father's Day into three separate words so I could put them in their own cloud. Almost like Dad is relaxing inbetween jumps reading the message sent to him from above! Do you see the other fun sentiment under dad?

Finally, I did a lot of stamping on this card. Let's start with the main image. Daddy cuddling up with his baby while he reads the morning paper, with a mess of toys at his feet. That was totally our house when the boys were small!

This set comes with a lot of sentiments, so I thought why not use a bunch of them?! To house them all, I got out the Anita Jeram Wall Words and embossed and cut some gold frames. I like that the extra white space from inside the frames helps tame some of the "wallpaper" stripes.

Speaking of stripes, it finally dawned on me that the point of the Anita Jeram Stripes and Dots Background is to recrate the Colorado Craft Company logo!! So I tried that with the blush, aqua and embossed gold. Looks pretty close to the header on the packaging below, right?

Anita Jeram - For Dad Stamps

Don't feel like you always have to color everything. For this card I saved coloring the baby mouse until the very end, and by that time I decided that the best color would be no color. He being white, he stands out from the gray dad, and balances all the white in the word frames.

Sure hope you enjoyed the cards I shared! If you'd like to see more, I'll invite you to follow my blog and Instagram so you won't miss any good stuff!

Prizes:
The lovely folks at Colorado Craft Company have generously agreed to give away a $25 gift certificate to one random person who comments on this post, and every other post in this blog hop! Wow! Be sure to comment along the way to increase your chances and spread the love : ) The giveaway will end on April 13th at midnight EST. I will announce my winner on April 14th. Good luck!

Your next stop is the talented Koren Wiskman with something adorable to share with you!

Here's the complete blog hop list if you need it:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

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

Anita Jeram - For Dad Stamps

Anita Jeram - For Dad Dies

Anita Jeram - Amazing Mom Stamps

Anita Jeram - Amazing Mom Dies

Anita Jeram - Wall Words

Stripes and Dots Background

Monday, March 29, 2021

Pinkfresh Studio March 2021 Cling Stamp, Stencil, Die, and Hot Foil Release

Hi Friends! Oh boy, it's been torture having a GIANT package of new stamps, dies, stencils, AND HOT FOIL PLATES from the latest Pinkfresh Studio release in my craft room for the last month and not be able to share!

For this post I used the Fancy Floral Print Layering Stencil and the Thank You So Much Hot Foil Plate. There are so many other amazing new products (found HERE in the new release section) that I'll be showcasing them for quite some time.

Layering stencils have always been a favorite of mine due to their ease of use, and stunning, reliable results. I especially like layering stencils that make backgrounds, because you can cover the entire panel in a short period of time, and experiment with many different color combinations.

These two panels were created with the Fancy Floral Print Layering Stencil in just a few minutes (deciding on colors took much longer, ha!) I've used these to make all three of the following cards.

The pattern on this panel is stenciled on light yellow cardstock.

TIP: Don't feel limited to stenciling only on white paper!

Because the stencil creates such a beautiful pattern, you don't need much else! To finish the card I just die cut some alphas to spell out my sentiment.

TIP: Don't feel you need to pick a color for your layering stencils. Sometimes instead of a color, gold embossing is a good choice!

I chose to blend watermark ink through the stencil for the tiny flower centers, and then embossed in gold. Love it!

For the next panel I blended similar blue/orange/yellow colors on white paper, and then afterwards blended a light layer of blue all over the panel.

I hand cut a curve in the patterned paper [OOOPS, I mean the stenciled paper!! : )] and layered underneath a scallop cut with one of the Essentials: Classic Edgers Dies.

More of Heather's lowercase alphas for the win on the sentiment!

Finally, I couldn't just throw away the left over stenciled pieces from the last card, right?! So I measured how tall of a piece of navy cardstock I'd need to fill in the gap, and cut the ends with a different edgers die.

And the elephant in the room ... the super-sexy hot foiled Thank You sentiment! OH MY GOSH I'M IN LOVE!! If you follow me on Instagram (@notablenest) you may have seen my reel yesterday of me making my very first hot foil with this plate and the Spellbinders Glimmer machine. LOVE this look, and LOVE the slight indentation you get with a thicker paper like watercolor paper.

I used to rationalize not getting a Glimmer or other hot foiling machine, thinking I can always just emboss things in gold. Well, now I see the elegance of the hot foil! It's so smooth and even.

I stenciled a few more blooms, cut them out by hand, and tucked them behind that fabulously foiled sentiment.

Here's a recap of the three cards I made, with little more than the two panels I created in minutes with the Fancy Floral Print Layering Stencil.

My other plug for these layering stencils is that they are so inexpensive! You don't even need to buy a stamp!

GIVEAWAYS:

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

-We will be giving away a total of TEN $25 gift cards along the hop; winners will be picked from the comments so be sure to leave a quick comment!

Winners will be posted on April 5 , 2021 on the Pinkfresh GIVEAWAY PAGE and must claim their prize within 2 weeks.

SHOPPING PROMO:

We are offering free US shipping (or discounted international shipping) on all orders $50+ from March 29th to April 4th. Please find the codes in the graphic above.

Your next stop on the hop is the amazingly talented Kelly Lunceford! I've included the hop list below as well:

Thanks so much for stopping by!
- Kelly

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

Floral Print Layering Stencil

Thank You So Much Die

Thank You So Much Hot Foil Plate

Heather's Lowercase Alpha Dies

Lea's Ornate Uppercase Alpha Dies

Essentials: Classic Edgers Dies

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Altenew Celebrating Parents Card Drive Blog Hop + Giveaway

Hi Friends! I'm happy to be joining Altenew in the Celebrating Parents Blog Hop, where our goal is to send a truckload of cards to elderly folks living in nursing homes or shelters, and just let them know someone is thinking of them.

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

If you've already participated and sent some cards, that's fantastic!! If you're interested in joining, you can check out all the details at the main Celebrating Parents Card Drive post on how to send cards.

I thought I'd go big for this card, and used a 5" x 7" card base. While I of course enjoy the familiarity of an A2-sized card base, it's great to switch things up once in awhile.

The blooms on this card are the gorgeous Airbrushed Flowers, a layered stamp set that's so easy to line up due to the loose nature of the airbrushing. I do love all the white space that's left in the flowers as well. That makes the flowers sure to pop on a non-white background.

Speaking of non-white background, I was really happy with how this background turned out! Any guesses how it's made?

Perhaps the long birch tree from Birch Impressionism?! Yep and yep!

Finally, the Versatile Vases 2 come in super handy to use as a place to put these beautiful blooms. Being in different sizes, there's always a perfect size for you to use.

Giving Back Info:

We have chosen a few Altenew products that are great for your Mother’s Day and Father’s Day cards (and other year-round projects)!

Simply the Best Stamp Set

World's Best Dad Stamp Set

Thanks, Dad Stamp Set

Thanks Around the World Stamp Set

Courageous You Stamp Set

Arabesque Medallion Stamp Set

Extra Special Stamp Set

Precious Moments Stamp Set

Altenew will donate $1 with every order of the above stamp sets from 3/6/2021 until 5/31/2021 to the Food Bank of Central New York to support seniors in need.

Giveaway Prizes

$200 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $50 gift certificate to 2 lucky winners and a $20 gift certificate to 5 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop by 03/31/2021 for a chance to win.

Altenew will draw 7 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 04/2/2021.

I am now please to send you to the blog of Linda Westfall who has something fun to share!

Thanks for stopping by!
- Kelly

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