Effie's Surprise Birthday Party Blog Hop!

Happy Easter weekend, friends!! Today, I and the other members of The Ton's Design Team have a special blog hop in honor of our fearless leader's birthday!!! You can hop around to all of the team member's blogs to get some serious eye candy. For my project, I was inspired by this image, found on Pinterest:

It reminded me of Effie for a couple of reasons: incredible peonies (the reason for which is self explanatory) and the overall feel of total classiness, which definitely reminds me of Effie's illustrations and general style. I started by stamping a ton (hardy har) of the peonies from Fresh Cut Peonies using the Peony Couture Color Collection onto white linen card stock. I then stamped the leaves using the new Crystal Garden Couture Color Collection. All of the images were fussy cut after being stamped. I know, I have the dies, but for some reason, I just felt like I needed to spend the time fussy cutting them all. I'm a weirdo. And, can I just say how much I'm in love with this particular green and pink combination?! Could NOT be more perfect together. 

The bag/box is constructed from a small rectangle of the same white linen card stock. I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment (from Shoe Wardrobe Outline and utterly appropriate for the occasion). I wanted it to look super fancy, like something you'd get from a high end boutique florist, so I lined the edge of the box in Gold Foil Tape from the shop. After popping it up with some dimensional adhesive on a 5.5x5.5 inch square card base, I adhered some 1/4" white silk ribbon to the box for a "handle" and arranged my blooms, popping up a few of them to continue that 3D look. 

A side view to see some of the dimension on those gorgeous flowers. I want them in real life. Gah! 

Now, be sure to hop around to the rest of the Design Team's creations, because you are in for a treat! 

Jess

Ruby

Mayline

Emily

Vera

Eunji

Keeway

Wishing you the happiest of birthdays, Effie! 

Hello, Sunshine!

My mom used to sing "You are my Sunshine" to my sister when we were younger. A friend of ours has been going through a bit of a rough time after having her baby, and I thought this sentiment was perfect for her. 

To start, I heat embossed that redonkulous Ranunculus image twice onto some watercolor paper using White Satin Pearl embossing powder from Hero Arts. I wanted some super soft watercolor for this project, so I reached for my Distress Inks. I like the ability to really water down the color when you tap the Distress Inks onto a clear block. Makes the colors so much softer and more muted. For this image, I used Worn Lipstick, Salty Ocean, Evergreen Bough, Mustard Seed, and Shaded Lilac. I simply colored all of the images with their respective colors in a very watered down, muted shade of the Distress color, then went back in and did some glazing with a darker color with a deeper concentration of ink to indicate shading and shadows. After they were dry, I fussy cut them and set them aside. 

The rest of the card is ridiculously simple. I heat embossed the "Sunshine" with the White Satin Pearl embossing powder on the blue card stock, which made it a very pretty shade of the same blue as the card stock. I then added the "hello" in a cobalt blue. One of the bouquets was glued down, while another was popped up with dimensional adhesive along the fold of the card, and I then trimmed the edges off. 

That's it! For as long as it took me to watercolor those bouquets, this card sure is simple.... Oh well. I can't help that I'm a perfectionist (as much as one can be with such a loose medium, anyway). I hope you have a fabulous weekend! 

Happy Birthday To You...

Hello, friends!

Happy Wednesday. Today I'm sharing a card that I've been working on for what feels like forever. I colored the bits and pieces when I was coloring my neon floral frames for my previous post. You know the invitation that has been the inspiration for several of my last posts? Well, this is the birthday card for the little girl for whom the invitation was sent, and I think it is super cute, not to mention it matches her birthday party theme and decor. Score!! 

I started by heat embossing all of the images from Avery Elle's new Banner and Wreath set, then die cutting them with the coordinating dies. After die cutting all of the pieces, I just sat and played with my Zigs.... I can't ever get enough of those things. The "1" is the only thing that is slightly "technique-y" on the whole project. I simply die cut the number one from an older Avery Elle die set, then did some ink blending with Cactus Flower Archival Ink to create an ombre effect. I die cut a frame from the PTI Pretty Frames die set from some Jelly Bean Bazzill card stock. After I figured out my placement of all of my colored die cuts, I used my blending tool and some Wild Orchid dye ink from The Ton to blend behind where the wreath would be. After that, it was just a matter of gluing everything down. I added in a few sequins from the Pansy collection from Lucy Abrams and decided that I needed to leave it alone before I messed it up. 

I hope you enjoyed this card! I am really happy with how it came out (finally), and I hope that the recipient (well, I guess her mom) likes it! Have a fabulous day! 

Neon is not my forte...

So, for the last year or two, neon has been HUGE. I'll make a confession.... I hate neon. Like, I hate it. If you've seen my work for any amount of time at all, you'll know I truck primarily in pastels and jewel tones (usually not together). So when the early 90's started making a return into the fashion (and thus, the cardmaking) world, I was less than thrilled. BUT this project may have changed that bad 'tude I once maintained. This card definitely did not come out as I originally intended, but I'm kind of okay with that.

To start, I heat embossed a bunch of images from the Avery Elle Floral Frame stamp set using Satin Pearl embossing powder on watercolor paper, then running them through my Big Shot (my Vagabond died, but a new one is on its way to me... yay!) with the coordinating dies. When my mojo is lying low, and I can't come up with a real "project," this is one of my go-to solutions: stamp/heat emboss a bunch of images and pull out the Zigs. I chose this color scheme based on a party invitation we received for our friends' daughter's birthday party, but it came out so much brighter and more neon-ish than I initially intended. (That invite has given me quite a bit of inspiration!)

After using my Zig markers to watercolor the florals, I started on my card base. I used a Summer Sunrise top-folding card base and arranged my floral wreath on it. It needed something, so I pulled out my blending sponges, Summer Sunrise, and Orange Zest inks and began blending around the edges, concentrating the deepest orange color around the very edge. After popping up my floral frame with dimensional adhesive, I used my new Twice the Thanks dies from My Favorite Things to die cut some white card stock. To create the pretty ombre, I used my new Cactus Flower Archival Ink to do some blending. I was surprised and pleased by how well the Archival Ink blended! 

The last step was to add some Glossy Accents to the centers of the flowers. I feel a little odd leaving sequins off, but I don't think this card needs them, do you?

Anyway, that's all for me today! I hope you enjoyed my foray into the world of neon!

PTI February Blog Hop

Good afternoon! This is my second post today. The first post, Jessica's 2k IG hop, is below, so if you're searching for that post, please keep scrolling. 

The inspiration for this month's Papertrey Ink blog hop gave me a bit of trouble, I'll admit. I loved the colors, and I loved the overall feel, but it was a challenge for me to come up with a project. (I think part of the reason is that I am still impatiently waiting for my Anniversary release order, so my brain won't stop thinking of ideas to use with products I don't yet have!!)

Anyway, here's the inspiration photo:

And here's my take on it:

I heat embossed a bunch of the blossoms from Bold Blossoms using White Satin embossing powder around the edge of a panel of watercolor paper. (Strathmore 500 series... wow!) I then used my Dr Ph Martin's watercolors to paint inside the lines with a couple of different shades of pink. (I wanted to use my new peonies stamps, but the snow we had yesterday delayed them. Boo!) I stamped and embossed a few more blooms on a scrap piece of watercolor paper, then colored them with the same color and fussy cut them, to be popped up later. I die cut the greeting, from Graceful Greetings, then stamped it with Ripe Avocado ink. After trimming the colored panel down, matting it with a piece of Lovely Lady card stock, then mounting that on my Spring Moss card base, I popped up the extra blooms to add some dimension to the card. 

I hope you enjoyed my rendition of the inspiration photo! I'm going to have to save this one for future reference, when I have my pretty new stamps to play with. :) Happy hopping, friends! 

Jessica's 2k IG Hop!

Hello friends! Happy Thursday (I love that it's Thursday, because that means tomorrow is Friday, and that means it's almost the weekend. Yay!!) Today, I'm here celebrating a very sweet crafty friend's success... Jessica Frost-Ballas has reached 2000 followers on Instagram! r(What an incredible milestone!) She's an incredible card maker, harpist, a gourmet cook whose foodie photos give me a complex about my sad meatloaf, and a wonderfully supportive friend. I'm so grateful for a chance to support her, as she so often does for other crafters!

Several other crafters are part of the Instagram hop, and you can find a list of their blog posts HERE if you don't IG. There are several giveaways, including a gift certificate to The Ton Stamps as well as a GC to Butterfly Reflections Ink, so be sure to look out for those!!!

The participants in the hop were given this inspiration photo to use if we so chose:

And here's my take on it:

I started with this redonkulus ranunculus image from the new Wplus9 release. I seriously can't get enough of this gorgeous bouquet of flowers... it looks stunning in any color combination and with any technique. I heat embossed it on some Arches Cold Press watercolor paper using White Satin embossing powder. I then used my new Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus Watercolors to watercolor the images. I'm still learning with these beautiful watercolors, but I have to say that I really love them! They definitely require different techniques than the Zig markers, but I'm learning to manipulate the color with more and less water. All it takes is a little trial and error! Luckily for me, watercolor is a very forgiving medium. 

I die cut PTI's Scripted die from white pearl card stock, then stamped the rest of the greeting from the coordinating stamp set in The Ton's Noir ink.I stamped the background of the card base with The Ton's Lofty Mint ink using The Ton's Haute Stripes stamp (there's something so timeless and classic about stripes and flowers).  I matted the watercolored panel with some silver mercury glass card stock. The final touch was to add some little sparkly silver dots using a silver Wink of Stella pen. 

The card's greeting echoes my sentiments to Jessica: I am so happy to consider her a friend, and I am so thrilled for her success! You'll have another 2000 IG followers soon enough! Cheers to you, friend! 

Here's the order for the rest of the hop (all users can be found on Instagram):

1 Jessica - @JessicaAFrost
2 Emily - @eamidgett
3 Laurel - @laurelbeard
4 Lisa - @lstein0 (that's a zero not an 'o')
5 Audrey - @audrey_tokach
6 Chris - @skidoomomma
7 Keeway - @kiwi.koncepts
8 Michelle @emellell73
9 Effie - @thetonstamps
10 Ruby - @rubznaz
11 TaeEun - @tyoocat
12 Amy - @craftee1

Have a fantastic day, and enjoy hopping around! There is such a fun array of styles and stamps used here... Love each and every project!!!

You are Beautiful Inside and Out

Hi friends! It is blizzard-ing outside right now, so I thought I'd post a cheerful, springy card on my blog today.

Hero Arts is a relatively new company to me... I've only been buying their stamps for about a year. BUT they've quickly become one of my favorite companies! I used several Hero Arts products from their Spring 2016 release. To start, I stamped the lovely woodgrain background on an aqua card base using Bright Emerald ink from The Ton. I did a little ink blending with the same ink in the center of the card to create a highlighted background for my sentiment, then set my card base aside. I die cut and stamped the flowers using the Coloring Layering Flowers For You and coordinating dies. (Pink and aqua make my heart happy.) The sentiment is also a new set, Beautiful You dies and Beautiful Words stamps from Concord and 9th, and my oh my, does that font on that die make my heart go pitter patter. I adhered the beautiful die cut and heat embossed the rest of the sentiment in bright white embossing powder on the highlighted section of card base. After I had the sentiment finished, I arranged and adhered the flowers the way I liked them, popping some of the larger blooms up with dimensional adhesive. The final step was some Glass Slipper sequins from The Ton to add some sparkle and balance out the floral sprays. 

I hope you enjoyed this card! I'm going to keep wishing for spring as I watch the snow outside of my window....