Fun with Vellum

Okay, when I type that title, I hear "Fun with Flags" in my head in Sheldon's voice. Can't help it. Both sound quite dull to anybody but a vellum or flag enthusiast.

Anywho, vellum is just about one of my most favorite supplies. (which I guess makes me a vellum enthusiast?) I love that you can do so much with it. Heat embossing on vellum is such a fantastic way to add a little interest, and embossing white on vellum makes for such a subtle, but gorgeous impact. For this card, I heat embossed the Floral Cling Border from The Ton Stamps onto a piece of A2 sized vellum, then stamped the same image again in a light shade of waterproof ink onto my card base, which was created from watercolor paper. I used watercolor paper so that I could color those gorgeous flowers in with my Zig markers. When laying vellum over top of a colorful image, you want to take care to choose very bold, bright colors, because the vellum will severely soften the shades you've chosen. I chose to use deep violet and pink for my flowers. I wish that I hadn't spent quite so much time shading them with my wet paintbrush, because the detail of the shading gets quite lost behind the vellum overlay, but oh well. Watercoloring with my Zigs is so relaxing, I don't mind if it ends up going to waste. 

For my sentiment, I die cut one of the Keep It Simple Frames from PTI and added a Mom die cut, cut from a complementary shade of plum. I used the same plum colored card stock to cut the Pretty Frame Die, also from PTI, so that I could have a little contrast around the edge of that gorgeous lacy border. (I love the way this image looks heat embossed in white on the vellum. It looks like one of those gorgeous lacy vintage table cloths.) The last bit was to add a few sequins in shades of pink and lavender.

I have plans to make another card in similar style using my Copics. Can't wait to get some more time to play! I hope you liked this project. Have a fantastic day, and thanks so much for visiting!! 

Got Donuts?

Hi friends! I'm here today with a card that just plain makes me hungry. All of the fantastic doughnutty goodness that we had in The Ton's last release has made me perpetually hungry for breakfast pastries. 

For this card, heat embossed the Doughnut Party background with gold embossing powder onto a deep pink card base. I then embossed that gigantic gorgeous Hello from Brushed Hello in the same gold embossing powder onto a piece of turquoise card stock. I trimmed it down and added a very thin strip of shiny gold mirror cardstock at the top to allow for some contrast between the pink card base and the turquoise sentiment panel. As an afterthought, I added the tea cup from Tea Party, because coffee and doughnuts go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Okay, I need to stop, because I'm making myself hungry.... A few turquoise sequins were the final finishing touch just to add some sparkle.  

That's all for me today! Now, I'm off to find a doughnut.... Have a great day!

Sending Peonies and Sympathy

Hello, friends! I feel like I neglect my blog when there's not a release for The Ton in the works, so I thought I'd remedy that with a few projects that I didn't get to share during the spring release festivities.

Today's project uses the stunning new set Sending Peonies. I am so grateful that Effie designed these "bouquet" stamps for us, because this way, there's no masking needed to create a beautiful cluster of blooms! Just stamp and go. I started by stamping the large cluster in the corners of an A2 sized panel of watercolor card stock using Copper embossing powder from Hero Arts. I am not really sick of pink peonies, (how could one ever get sick of pink peonies?) but I did want to do something a little different, so I decided to stick with a fairly monochromatic color scheme and color these peonies a very, very pale shade of peach and coral. I think the oranges are perfect with the copper embossing powder. I used a warm gray Zig marker to outline the bouquets, then spread the color with my wet paint brush so that it gradually faded away. I used a lovely With Sympathy die from Lil' Inker Designs to cut some chocolate brown card stock, which I then covered in Glossy Accents to add a little textural contrast to the card front. The final step was to add a border, cut from the Pretty Frame Die from Papertrey Ink using cocoa brown glitter paper that I had in my stash. Fairly simple, very flat and easily mailed, but would hopefully bring a smile to the recipient's face. 

Well, that's all for me today! I will be back soon with some more projects that I've been working on. Have a fantastic weekend! 

The Ton Stamps Spring Release Blog Hop!

Hello! Welcome to The Ton Stamps's Spring Release Blog Hop! If you're going in order, you should have arrived from Amy Tsuruta, and your next stop is Laura Sterckx. Well... have you all placed your orders? Wasn't that a phenomenal release?! Effie really outdid herself. I so appreciate all of the exceptionally kind comments some of you left on my blog posts... They really were so lovely to read, and I appreciate each and every one of them. Today, I have just two projects to show you, both using some of the new flower stamps released yesterday. (Shocker, I know!) Let's get started!

My first project utilizes the gorgeous peony bouquet in Happiest of Peonies. I just can't get enough of that little spray of peonies. (Seriously, SO much fun to color. You'll see.) I started by heat embossing them in white pearl embossing powder onto some watercolor card stock, then watercoloring them with my Zigs and a wet paintbrush. (again, shocker for you! haha! I'm so predictable...) Anyway, after the blooms were dry, I fussy cut them, then turned my attention to the card base. I had stamped several stripe-y backgrounds using Haute Stripes just to have on hand, and had this black one (stamped with Noir ink) lying on my desk staring at me. What is more classic than pink peonies and black stripes? Reminds me of those mood boards you see on Pinterest. Anyway, I trimmed the panel down, mounted it on my card base, and then worked on my sentiment. I die cut that lovely "fabulous" die using the gold adhesive glitter sheets, then stamped the "have a" and "birthday" labels from Basic Labels using Hollywood Star ink. After that, it was just a matter of arranging everything on my card base. I snipped off one of the little buds and adhered it to the bottom of the card to balance everything out. I didn't add any sequins, but I think it's busy enough without them. What do you think? 

My next project is a favorite from this release. I saw a piece of fabric on Pinterest last week (for some reason didn't pin it, so I don't have the photo for you, sorry) that had a white floral pattern with a solid pink background and knew that I could recreate it with my stamps. To start, I stamped and embossed the Floral Border Cling background stamp with Versamark and clear embossing powder. I then used my darkest pink Zig marker to watercolor in the background, adding in some cloudy, watercolor-y spots (I have no idea what the technical term for that is) here and there to make it look less flat. 

Now, here comes the super fun part. I couldn't just leave the flowers alone. I can't have just flat flowers anymore... gotta have some shading and dimension. So, I used my silver and clear Wink of Stella brush pens to add not only shading, but sparkle, too!! I was so excited to discover that the WoS blend pretty well on watercolor paper. (I should have known since people use them to blend Zig markers all the time, but I'm a goober at times. Let's call it mom-brain.) After that, the only thing left to do was to heat emboss my sentiment (from Brushed: Thanks) onto vellum and fussy cut it. I popped it up with some clear dimensional adhesive to make certain the ends didn't get lost on those sparkly white flowers. 

There's a little bit better shot of how sparkly the flowers are! Love it! 

Now, to end the week with a bang, Effie is generously giving away three $25 gift codes to The Ton's shop! All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment on The Ton's blog post, as well as each blog along the hop. (You must comment on each blog to be eligible! Don't forget!) Here is the list of Blog Hop participants:

The Ton

Ruby Naz

Lisa Harrolle

Jessica Frost-Ballas

Virginia Lu

Keeway Tsao

Amy Tsuruta

Emily Midgett <----- You are here! 

Laura Sterckx

Vera Yates 

Laurel Beard

Eunji Jung

Kymona Tracey

Mayline Jung

The winners for the three gift codes will be chosen randomly, and you have until Wednesday, April 13 at 11:59 pm EST to leave your comments on all of the blogs to be eligible to win! Happy Hopping!! :) 

The Ton Stamps Spring Release- Day 4

Helloooooo! Happy Thursday! I love Thursdays. Thursdays are paydays (though only every other week), and the day before the weekend. Yay! Today rocks even more, though, because today is the day you can buy the TWENTY-TWO new products we've been teasing you with for the last three days! For our last day, we're showing you projects made with some new background sets: Pineapple Print Backgorund, Doughnut Party Background, Flamingo Print Background. We also have a couple of clear sets for you: Doughnut Bar and Let's Mingle Labels. I've got a couple of fun cards for you today, so let's get started! 

This first project uses the absolutely darling Flamingo Print Background. Isn't it just fabulous and so trendy!?! I heat embossed it in gold onto a panel of white A2 card stock, then used my Hollywood Star and Cosmopolitan Pink inks to blend a glorious halo of pink. I concentrated the darkest color around the edge, so as to draw the eye to the center of the card, where my sentiment is. Love the effect it has! 

For my sentiment, I heat embossed the gargantuan Hello from Brushed: Hello onto vellum using gold embossing powder, then fussy cut it. The mini set Let's Mingle has some fantastically cheeky little sentiments on it, including this "Let's Flamingle." I stamped it using the Caviar Hybrid ink onto some white card stock, then fussy cut it as well. (This set, along with all of the other label sets debuting today, are available for pre-order. They should arrive in a few weeks.) I used clear foam adhesive to pop up the vellum sentiment as well as the black label sentiment. The final touch was some sequins-  Medallion Gold, Night, and Strawberry Margarita. 

 My next card is an homage to my love of carbs. Doughnuts.... who doesn't love doughnuts?! The only donut missing from Doughnut Bar is a Long John. Mmmm.... I'm making myself hungry. Well, the (incredibly accurate) sentiments are the icing on the cake (doughnut?) of this fabulous little set. To start, I used the "love" from Bokeh Burst: Heart and the Cocoa Couture Color Collection to create an ombre love. I used some little foam pouncers and my MISTI and got a perfectly gradient ombre "love." I cut the "more than" portion of the sentiment included in Doughnut Bar off and added the "carbs" in the darkest shade of the Cocoa trio. I then masked off about 1/2 inch around the edge of my white 5x5 card base and used my ink blending tools to blend Ballet Slippers and Hollywood Star inks around the top of where I wanted my shaker to be placed to continue the ombre effect.  

The shaker frame was created using two of the Double Stitched Square dies and some clear card stock. I added some little color-coordinated donuts from Doughnut Bar that I stamped and cut out and a bunch of sequins, including My Tutu, Pastel Pink, Burnt Caramel, Creamy Toffee, Dusty Pink, Fairy Pink, and Metallic Taupe Mini Flora sequins and Hazelnut Mousse seed beads. I really love how this project turned out. Aaaand now I need to go find a donut. Pardonnez moi.  

That's all for me today! Now for the GIVEAWAY. Effie is going to choose FOUR winners each day from both The Ton's Blog and the Design Team's blogs, so be sure to leave a comment on each blog for the maximum number of entries! And remember, all of these products are NOW AVAILABLE for purchase!! Go forth and shop! :)

Be sure to come back tomorrow for an amazing blog hop with some fabulous guest designers. It's going to be fantastic! See you soon! 

The Ton Stamps Spring Release- Day 3

Hellooooo! Welcome back to day 3 of The Ton's Spring Release! What did you think of those peonies yesterday, eh?? Totally swoon-worthy, right?! Well, today we have some absolutely fabulous sets to show you. Some really inventive, gorgeously scripty sentiment sets. I unfortunately did not (again, due to some unforeseen issues that came up this past weekend) have enough time to properly play with these incredible sets, but I'll show you what I have and save my other ideas for a rainy day. :) Today, we're showing you the NEW Bokeh Burst line: Bokeh Burst Round, Bokeh Burst Heart, and Bokeh Burst Star. (I am so totally and completely in love with this idea. Effie is a genius!) We also have the amazing new Brushed series to show you: Brushed Hello, Brushed Happy, and Brushed Thanks. These are so gorgeous. And lastly, we have a new floral cling background to show you: Floral Border. Let's get started with the projects, shall we?

This first project is suuuuper simple using Bokeh Burst: Heart. I have plans for using them as they were intended, but I wanted to do something a little simpler for my first project. To start, I stamped that incredible brushed "love" using the darkest shade from The Orchid Collection of Couture Color ink. Next, I used the various sizes of hearts included in the Bokeh Burst: Heart stamp set to create a kind of ethereal trail of hearts that are concentrated on the bottom, both in the dark shades of ink and the size of the hearts. Tip: to make your ink go farther, as well as create that ethereal faded look, stamp off once or twice to get a lighter shade of the same color of ink. To achieve that bokeh look, I stamped off on a sheet of scratch paper for some of the hearts, as well as overlapping some of the hearts to make it look more random. I popped up the panel on a white card base, then added some Glossy Accents over the top of the calligraphic "love" sentiment. That's it! Super clean and simple, but so pretty, I think. 

This next project is a favorite. I love blush colored anything, and blush colored peonies are so very very beautiful.I started with some of the new Loose Peonies stamps and heat embossed all of the flowers and leaves included in the set using gold embossing powder on watercolor card stock. I watercolored them all using a super pale pink Zig marker, a paint brush, and water. My next step was to heat emboss the gorgeous scripty "love" from Bokeh Burst: Heart onto some vellum. I fussy cut it, then arranged my Loose Peonies in a bouquet and adhered them down on a dark heather green card base. (I love the contrast of the super pale flowers with that dark card base!) I used some matte adhesive to adhere my vellum sentiment down. The last step was to adhere some pretty sequins (Peach Whisper and Pastel Pink) to fill out the bouquet.  

This next card is one of my favorites from the entire release. It's so happy and festive... I have been really enjoying this color combination of late, and in my head (well, now on my blog) I've been calling it my "fiesta" color combo. Now, one of the fabulous things about the new Brushed series is that the sentiments are utterly massive. I have always loved handwriting. I think I have pretty nice penmanship, but when it comes to calligraphy, for some reason... I'm hopeless. With the Brushed series, I can get that gorgeous hand-drawn calligraphy look without agonizing over each stroke and giving myself carpal tunnel. One technique that I really love to do with scripty sets like this is to make it look like I wrote the sentiment myself. To do this, I simply stamp my sentiment from Brushed: Happy using Distress Ink (in this case, Wild Honey), then go over it with a wet paintbrush. I took it one step further with this project by adding some shadows of a darker orange in Spiced Marmalade. Doing this makes it appear that you have those enviable calligraphic skills, but in actuality you're a big faker. Teehee! The floral spray from Happiest of Peonies was stamped at various angles all over the edges of the A2 watercolor panel using a very pale gray ink. I then used my Zigs to color and shadow the flowers. The final step was to take a super pale gray (you can't see it as well in the photo as you can in real life) Zig marker and outline both the "Happy" and the flowers. This last step seems unnecessary, but it really adds such a huge impact and makes all of the elements pop off of the paper. 

My last project for today uses the new Floral Border Cling stamp. This stamp is sized just slightly larger than an A2 card, so you get perfect coverage. I stamped and heat embossed it using silver pearl embossing powder onto watercolor paper (my favorite right now is Montval by Canson), then colored in all of the blooms using my Zigs (surprise, surprise). I stamped my greeting, from Sending Peonies, in Noir ink, then used the Double Stitched Rectangle dies to cut out the rectangle from the center. (These double stitched dies from The Ton are my first double stitched dies, and I have to say, I'm totally hooked. I love that I can get a useable die cut from both the positive and the negative spaces of my die cut.) I popped up my outer frame on my card base using dimensional adhesive, then glued my interior rectangle directly to the card base itself. The last step was to add a few Glass Slipper sequins. 

That's all for me today! Now, for the details of the GIVEAWAY! Effie is giving away FOUR $15 gift certificates. Be sure to comment on The Ton's Blog as well as on each of the Design Team's blogs to get maximum entries to win!! Have a fantastic day, and enjoy the rest of the DT's projects! They're works of art in card form. 

The Ton Stamps Spring Release- Day 2

Hello, friends, and welcome back to Day 2 of the Spring Release for The Ton Stamps! Today, we're showcasing Sending Peonies, Happiest of Peonies, Loose Peonies, and Vogue Alphabets Upper and Lower. If you've not been to my blog before, you might not know how utterly and completely obsessed I've been with The Ton's peony stamps. I can't get enough. I want to put flowers, peonies more specifically, on eeeeeeeverything. (And I do just that quite a lot.) I about fell off of my chair when Effie first started showing the Design Team sneaks of the sets shown today.... Swoon! I have approximately a million ideas for these sets (no hyperbole allowed on my blog, clearly), but a family emergency drew me away from my craft room last week, so those will have to be saved for a rainy day. Let's get started, shall we?

First up: Happiest of Peonies. This cluster of blooms just sings to my heart. Love love love. This set has some absolutely gorgeous sentiments included with it, and so I was able to complete this card using just one other stamp set from The Ton.  (don't you love when you can use only minimal supplies and still get an awesome finished look!?)  I started this project by heat embossing the floral cluster onto a sheet of watercolor card stock with some white satin pearl embossing powder. I then used my trusty Zig markers, a paintbrush, and some water to color and shade the blooms. I wasn't sure what I wanted when I started, just wanted to color a pretty pile of flowers, but I ended up with some beautiful coral peonies and thought they would look perfect with a navy blue background... very nautical and chic. I heat embossed the Polka Dot Cling background stamp using white embossing powder onto a navy blue card base. I then used the same white embossing powder to emboss the sentiment (also from Happiest of Peonies) onto a vellum rectangle that I die cut with the Double Stitched Rectangle dies. 

I trimmed off the smaller bud blooms from Sending Peonies and placed them in the corner of the card to create better visual flow. Before gluing anything down to my card base, I placed the blooms approximately where I wanted them on the card front, then glued them to the vellum rectangle. This allowed me to place my dimensional foam adhesive strategically so that I wouldn't have to have any adhesive visible on the vellum. I love how simple this card is, but those flowers pack so much punch that it doesn't look super simple. 

My next project features the new set Sending Peonies. Another fantastic cluster of peony blooms, but with a completely different look. Absolutely fabulous. I started by heat embossing the floral cluster (and the little extra separate flower and leaf cluster included in the set) in white pearl embossing powder onto some watercolor card stock. I took my darkest pink Zig marker and went to town on these puppies... So gorgeous. Nothing prettier than a pink peony. I fussy cut all of the flowers and then went to work on my background. 

The background is very subtle, just enough pattern to give some interest. (Plus, I love how that lattice pattern goes with any and all of the florals, because it looks like it could be a trellis.) I stamped the Geometric Lattice cling background in Crystal Pewter ink directly onto the white card base. For my greeting, I simply heat embossed the sentiment (from Bokeh Burst: Round) using silver embossing powder on a teal oval die cut that I had lying around on my desk. (sorry if you can't read the sentiment; that silver embossing powder did NOT photograph well. If I could, I'd go back and emboss it in white. C'est la vie.) I had originally intended only to use the floral spray and save the separate flower and foliage cluster for another card, but I found that after I had popped up my sentiment and floral swag there was a bare spot in the corner of my card front in which the extra flower fit perfectly. 

Well, that's all for me today! Effie is giving away a $15 gift certificate each day of the release, so Be sure you go to The Ton's Blog and leave a comment telling Effie which of these fantabulous new peony sets is your favorite... I don't know if even I can choose one! Be sure to leave a comment on The Ton's Blog AND the Design Team members' blogs, because you increase your chances to win the $15 gift certificate to The Ton's store with each comment! 

Have a fantastic day, friends! 

The Ton Stamps Spring Release- Day 1

Hello, friends! Happy Monday! Is there such a thing? Well, there definitely is reason to be happy on this particular Monday, because it's the first day of the The Ton Stamps's Spring Release! We have over TWENTY new stamp sets for you to drool over, as well as daily giveaways of $15 gift certificates, not to mention a fantastic blog hop with phenomenal guest designers! Today, we're showcasing five new sets for you: Hello Hummingbird, Fresh Cut Tulips, Basic Sentiments, Family Labels, and Basic Labels. 

Let's get started with the gorgeous goodies we're showcasing today. First stop: Hello Hummingbird. This set is SO gorgeous, easy to line up, and VERY unique. Definitely a must-have if you or your family are bird lovers! My first card is a shaker card that uses some old sets and the new Hello Hummingbird set. I first die cut the Geometric Lattice Coverplate from shimmery white card stock and glued it to a piece of vellum. I die cut a stitched square frame using the Double Stitched Square Dies, then used the larger of the two dies to cut the lattice/vellum to create my backer for the shaker. I next stamped the roses from Fresh Cut Roses using the Ruby Collection and the Crystal Garden Collection, then fussy cut them. Next came the super fun part: watching that gorgeous hummingbird come to life. I stamped the birdie using the Sky Blue Collection, Ruby Collection, and Amethyst Collection. It was so fun to add the layers and just watch it almost flutter off the page... SO realistic! I fussy cut the bird, then stamped my sentiment (from It's Cray Cray) on a flagged strip of white card stock. After that, it was just a matter of assembling my shaker and filling it up with Gilding (I used Light Plum, Light Amethyst, Midnight Blue, and Light Blue Topaz sequins). I love this one! The color combinations for this bird are endless, and luckily, hummingbirds come in a gazillion colors in real life! 

Now, since we were just talking about how gorgeous the hummingbird is in those gazillion color combinations, I thought I would do a complete 180* and show how beautiful just the bottom layer is when used as a silhouette. I simply heat embossed the bottom layer of each section of the bird from Hello Hummingbird using Versafine and clear embossing powder onto an A2 panel of white card stock, then followed up with that precious sentiment from the Hello Hummingbird set (I want to make this my new motto. Love it.) using the same technique. I then ink blended a halo around the bird using the Minted Color Collection. The only other thing to be added was a few Smoked Emerald sequins. 

Next up: Fresh Cut Tulips and Basic Sentiments. I just adore these tulips. Nothing says spring to me quite as loudly as seeing all of the tulips popping up everywhere, and they have FINALLY started appearing in our neighborhood. I stamped the tulips using the Peony Collection, Amethyst Collection, and Crystal Garden Collection, then fussy cut them. I clear embossed the vase (included with the Fresh Cut Tulips stamps!) onto a piece of vellum and fussy cut it to make it look like a frosted glass vase. Then it was time for the sentiment. Fresh Cut Tulips has a beautifully written "mom" sentiment included, and I decided to combine it with the previously released "fabulous" die and a label from the new Basic Sentiments set. For the fabulous die cut, I laid down some silver foil tape onto a strip of card stock, then die cut the word. Nice and shiny. The sentiment was stamped in the darkest purple shade of the Amethyst Trio. Finally, I added some beautiful sequins- Light Amethyst, Light Plum, and Smoked Amethyst.

Now, for the GIVEAWAY. Effie is giving away four $15 gift codes to The Ton Stamps store! In order to qualify, leave a comment on The Ton Stamps Blog. To increase your chances of winning, leave comments on the Design Team Members' blogs! All of the new products showcased today and the rest of the week will be available for purchase on Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 7 am EST. 

Well, that's all for me today! Check out what the rest of the team has to share with you over on The Ton Stamps Blog! Have a great day, and we'll see you back here tomorrow!