The Ton Anniversary Release- Blog Hop

Happy Friday, friends!!!

Today is The Ton's First Anniversary Blog Hop, to celebrate all of the utterly incredible products brought to you this week by The Ton. I hope you've loved every post and project from this last week from the crazy talented Design Team members (who I still find it amazing that I can count myself among them!) because I know that I have absolutely adored creating everything, and reading your wonderful comments on my projects was just the icing on the cake! Thank you all so much for your kind words. :) I've created five different (floral) projects for our blog hop today, so I hope you don't mind seeing some more flowers from me! Let's dive right in, shall we?

My first project is one with which I was particularly happy. I had several ideas roaming around in my head all week, with lots of pieces stamped and cut out just floating around on my desk. I had a vague notion of what I wanted to make with this card: flowers, gold glittery stripes, bold black die cut sentiment, but nothing concrete. Then it just suddenly clicked, and I am so pleased with how it came out. To start, I used the Haute Stripes rubber background stamp to create a gold striped background using gold glitter embossing powder. I knew I wanted a variety of sizes and types of blooms, so I stamped several of the peonies from Fresh Cut Peonies using the Coral Couture Color Collection, as well as several roses from Fresh Cut Roses using the Ruby Couture Color Collection. I fussy cut all of the blooms and leaves, then die cut the "fabulous" from black card stock. I arranged all of the blooms in a swag above and below the sentiment, using dimensional adhesive to pop up the center bloom, and added a few sequins.  

 My next project uses the same mint and lavender color combination from my post on day one of the countdown. The lovely roses were stamped with the Orchid Couture Color Collection, while the leaves were stamped with the Minted Couture Color Collection (CCC from now on! My fingers hurt lol.) The beautifully detailed vase was stamped with our Rose Gold Bangle pigment ink (isn't that vase just divine?!). The simple white card base was stamped with the Haute Stripes background stamp using Soft Orchid ink. The sentiment, from Friend Defined, was stamped in Smoky Quartz ink on the card base, then also on a white strip of card stock, which I later flagged at the end. Some sparkly sequins in shades of purple finished off this monochrome project. 

My next project uses the Morning Glory background stamp. I merely stamped the entire image onto a piece of watercolor paper using Plum Archival Ink, then chose a few blooms to watercolor with my Zig markers. I fussy cut them,  then stamped and heat embossed the greeting from Fresh Cut Roses onto a scalloped black rectangle die cut.  I popped up the black scalloped rectangle onto a pale pink card base, then arranged my florals so that they would overhang and go all the way to the edge of the card base. The final step was to add a few complementary sequins to add some sparkle

My next project uses a technique that I absolutely love, but don't often remember to do, because I don't use Kraft cardstock very often.... I'm not a huge fan of brown, if you can believe that. To start, I stamped all of the bottom layers of the roses from Fresh Cut Roses using Hampton White pigment ink in a totally random pattern, which I zapped with my heat gun to nudge the drying process along. I then used the Ruby CCC to stamp all of the layers of the roses. I created one mask for each rose shape, covered my roses, and used the Hot Tourmaline ink to stamp just the bottom layer of the leaves. (It's amazing how much lighter, but still vibrant, the ink shades are when stamped over the top of the white pigment ink.) I had a light pink oval on my desk from my pink and gold wedding gown project from Day 4, and I used that to stamp my sentiment in Noir ink. The oval die cut was looking a little bare, so I quickly stamped and fussy cut another rose and some leaves. I thought some twine would be appropriate given the shabby chic feel of this project, over which I adhered my oval die cut with dimensional adhesive. Some sequins in various shades of pink added a little sparkle. 

Now, this project might be my favorite from the whole release. (To say that I'm obsessed with these roses is a bit of an understatement....) As soon as I saw the rose and stripes stamps, my mind was flashing images of products from Rifle Paper Co. Flowers and stripes go together like peanut butter and chocolate. I've got about a gajillion things pinned on my "inspiration" board on Pinterest. I started by double stamping the entirety of the Haute Stripes on a square of white card stock with Noir Couture Color ink. By using my MISTI and double stamping the stripes, they're so perfect that they look almost printed. My next step was to stamp the Fresh Cut Roses using the Ruby, Peony, and Citrine CCC's and fussy cut them. (That was not a quick process for all of those flowers and leaves, let me tell you. But it was worth it, I think.) I stamped my greeting from Friggin Fabulous onto a white 6x6 card base. I had originally planned in arranging my flowers in a simple circular wreath shape, but I decided that, with all of the Valentine inspiration flooding my Instagram feed, I wanted to do a heart. I die cut a fairly large heart out of the center of my square striped panel, then popped up the stripe panel. I arranged my flowers the way I wanted them, adhered them, and finally added some sequins. 

If you're still with me at the end of this ridiculously long post, thank you! I hope you've enjoyed these projects! The products released this week are so incredible, so you've certainly not seen the last of them on my blog!!  

Have fun hopping around to all of the talented designers we have joining us for this special blog hop! Don't forget to comment on each blog to be entered to win one of FOUR $10 gift certificates to The Ton's shop, as well as a grand prize of a $25 gift certficate to the shop! The winners will be chosen randomly from amongst all of the bloggers on the hop. The deadline to leave a comment is Wednesday, January 20, 2016 at 11:59 pm EST. The more comments you leave, the more chances you have to win. Here's your list of participants:

The Ton

Amy

Vera

Laurel

Keeway

Laura 

Eunji

Virginia

Emily (you are here)

Nicole

Mayline

Taheera

Jessica

Stephanie

Ruby

Happy Hopping!!!