Refresh your crafty stash FOR FREE!

Today, I'm sharing 18 quick and easy ideas for refreshing your crafty stash without spending a cent!

LIMES with Brennan

Today, I'm excited to be introducing you to one of my newest crafty friends, Brennan. He's a talented newcomer on the card making scene and also to YouTube, so I'm excited to introduce you all to him, and show you how 3 of his cards helped me squeeze even more out of LIMES! (you can get a FREE LIMES worksheet here!)

Congrats!

 

I think that one of the best parts of cardmaking is that we can customize our creations for the occasion and the recipient. 

Yesterday, my son finished his Commercial Pilot's License and we're so happy for him! This is the completion of a big step towards his goal of becoming an airline pilot.

I used a plane die from MFT, big Congrats from Crafty Meraki, and a stamped sentiment from Ellen Hutson.

Rainbow Limes! (5K Together Video Hop)

Today my video combines two of my favourite things - LIMES and rainbows! 

I've been invited to celebrate with Erica and Maria as part of a video hop so be sure to watch how I was inspired by each of them and how I used two of my favourite direct-to-paper ink techniques. 

Then hop and comment for a chance to win! (details below)

Hop Details:

Comments must be left (on YouTube, not here) by June 23rd at 11:59 PM Pacific time. Winners will be announced on June 25th on both Erica’s and Maria’s YouTube channels.

Graduation Cards (and a fabulous cardmaking hack!)

 

This is not the greatest year for graduating, due to cancellation of proms, parties, photos and ceremonies, but both my kids have achieved milestones this year (Kate has finished high school and Struan is finished Uni)!

At least making their cards was efficient! lol! I used the same design, changed up for school colours, and I used a really easy hack that my friend Kathya showed in a video.

For the blue numbers and stripes (and purple too), I started with white cardstock, pressed Catherine Pooler ink onto it (Suede Shoes and Grape Crush) and spritzed it with Avery Elle Shimmer spray.

Then I grabbed my packing tape and taped it over top. And made my own 'glossy' cardstock. Or maybe you want to call it 'faux' embossing, using the tape instead of heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

Whatever you call it, the results are easy, quick and SHINY! 

My number dies are retired (Parker from Memory Box) but I've listed a few others below.

10K Hop Celebration

Today, I'm excited to be part of a video hop to celebrate my friend Jessica Frost-Ballas reaching 10K subscribers on her YouTube channel!

Jessica is such an inspiration to me and I figured the best way to celebrate was to choose one of her cards and LIMES it!

I chose this card as my inspiration:

Head over to YouTube to see how I was inpsired, and be sure to leave a comment on the videos in the hop before 23:59 on April 8 to be eligible to win a prize from these sponsors:

The more you comment, the more chance you have to win! Winners will be announced on Jessica's blog and YouTube channel on April 9.

Here's the link to my video:

No-line Watercolouring with Embossing Folder

I'm on the Birch Press Design blog today with a different kind of no-line colouring!

4 Card Ideas Using Birch Press Design Alphabet Stamps & Dies

click here for my 30 Days Colouring post.

I'm on the Birch Press blog today with 4 cards (and a giveaway!) using the new Mod Alphabet stamps and dies!

5 Ways to Use Zip Gift Tags Dies - i-crafter launch

Good morning! I've got exciting news to share today! I'm one of the very proud members of a new Inspiration Team for a new company called i-crafter!

Here's a few words from Lynda, the owner:

This is a company backed by years of experience in the crafting industry. Built from the ground up with a lot of blood, sweat and tears {of joy} by people who truly like working with each other.

We will be launching new product at the beginning of each month and together with that, we will feature an inspiring blog hop by our talented Inspiration Team. New ideas and new crafty goodies to start your month off as well as an entire 30ish days of inspiration by the Team.

Because we are so new, you may notice a few glitches here and there. Just know that we are working to make your experience with us as fun and inspiring as possible. We want to build lots of tutorials, videos and ideas into this site so each time you visit there is something new to see and learn.

So here we are and here we go!

Today we're having a blog hop to celebrate the launch and January release so be sure to hop along (information below).

I created 5 different projects featuring the new Zip Gift Tags die set - here's a video to show how I made them:

BLOG LIST

i-crafter
Amanda
Jenn
Jessica S.
Karen
Jessica F.
Lisa
Ardyth
Lynnea
Brianne
i-crafter

Be sure to hop to all the blogs and leave a comment, plus leave a comment on the i-crafter post as well. On February 1, one winner will be randomly selected from all commenters who have posted a comment on every blog. This winner will receive a a prize of some brand new i-crafter dies and stamps. 

**Contest is open to U.S. residents only**

You Did It! Pretty Pink Posh Release Day

The new Pretty Pink Posh Release is available now!

FS631 - Soar

Congratulations to this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper, Sunnylovespaper (Sunny Qi)!

I chose this card as my inspiration:

I focused on Sunny's:
-bird in flight in a blue sky

I changed:
-no ground or other images
-occasion

I started by masking a white card panel, using a straight piece of post-it tape along the bottom and an old retired arc shape from My Favorite Things. I blended various blue inks to create my sky.

I stamped, die cut and coloured one of the birds from the new Essentials by Ellen Backyard Bird Friends set and popped him up on the edge - as if he's soaring off into the future!

I used:

Adoring You Stamp of Approval Collection - Now Available!

The new Adoring You Stamp of Approval Collection is now available!

I used the new Adore cover plate die to create a door (get it? Adore, a door? LOL!). I cut the die with black cardstock and with white, and coloured the white pieces with Copics before inlaying them into the black 'frame'. I added a gold door knob (berry die from Sweet Home Wreath) and a gold key (Keys dies (add-on to the collection) and then used the Congratulations sentiment as a 'doormat'.

Adoring You Stamp of Approval Collection Video Hop

Good morning! Today is the Blog Hop for the newest Catherine Pooler Designs Stamp of Approval Collection, Adoring You.

As usual, the release is somewhat staggered - StampNation members get first crack at it on tonight, then Wait List members can purchase on Wednesday morning, and finally it is available to everyone else on Wednesday evening. This is an exclusive, curated collection, which means that all the products were designed specifically for this collection and they work together beautifully. Stamp of Approval Collections often sell out. And the products in the collection won't be available again for many months.

To read more about becoming a StampNation member, click here.

To sign up on the Wait List, click here.

I used the Sweet Home Wreath stamp set to create a graphic rainbow card. The simple sentiment comes from the Congratulations Sentiments set.

Here's my video. Be sure to hop, comment and subscribe to all the videos for a chance to win!

Muse 273 - Thanks

 I made these two card for this week's Muse Card Club, where Anita gave us this pretty inspiration:

I focused on Anita's:
-blended colours
-black elements and sentiment

As you can see, I ended up making two cards. This is my first time ever using Arches Cold Press Watercolour paper and I was having fun seeing how I liked it.

For the first card, I reversed Anita's idea of the blended stripe on the plain background. I masked a vertical stripe then created my blended background using Catherine Pooler inks. Wow do they ever blend seamlessly on this cardstock! I removed the mask right away, but still got 'fluffy' edges (not sure if that's the paper or the mask). Once it was dry, I stamped a branch from Wild Garden and a sentiment from Counting Blessings. Thank goodness for MISTI because I had to stamp over and over to get a black impression. I tried both Midnight and Versafine Clair Nocturne ink, both needed to be stamped several times on this bumpy, absorbent paper. 

For the second card, I created a horizontal stripe like Anita's, but with vertical blending. Or is that horizontal blending? Well, you know what I mean! lol!

I stamped some stars from Starlights and a sentiment from Spot On and then used the matching die to cut out the star and popped it up.

Overall, I loved painting on the cardstock, but I'm not in love with the creamy colour. I prefer a clean, crisp white. But the ease and result of the blending was amazing, so I'll definitely use it again, at least for that.

I used:

WOW! Catherine Pooler Blog Hop

Good morning! I'm excited to be part of a Blog Hop with some of the designers from the Catherine Pooler Creative Team and also some designers from WOW! Embossing Powders. We're hopping to show you how well these two product lines work together.

As you can see, I created two cards with stripes. What you maybe can't see is that they both used the exact same 6 WOW! Embossing Powders!

I thought it would be fun to show how different the powders look when you use a different ink as a base. I used the same stripe stamp from Eat, Sleep, Create for both cards. I used the same embossing powders in the same order. But for the Celebrate Everything card, I used Versamark ink. For the Star card, I used black Versafine ink. 

Working top to centre (and then I reversed the order and worked back out to the bottom), I used 

• Wanderlust (exclusive to Catherine Pooler Designs)
• Vintage Romance
• Silver Pearl
• Metalline First Frost
• Mermaid Tails
• Sand Dunes

The Versamark card resulted in colours that were soft, pretty and romantic, so I went with that feeling as I finished the card.

I used the scalloped rectangle from Tags, Etc. to trim the panel, and then I used the stitched rectangle from Postage Stamp dies to create an inner panel, which I popped up. I cut some flowers  from the dies that match Love Grows, and coated them in Versamark before embossing them with Vintage Romance and Mermaid Tails. My sentiment comes from Good Things and was embossed in a seventh variety of embossing powder - Metallic Gold Rich Pale Superfine.

The black ink gave more industrial, metallic results so I kept my card very simple and masculine. Again, I used the stitched rectangle from Postage Stamp dies, but I turned it on my panel a bit so that the stripes would be on an angle.

I simply inlaid the new Star Word die into the panel and called it done.

No blog hop is complete without some prizes. Are you ready for some awesome giveaways?

WOW! Embossing Powder

Any 6 powders of your choice along with a WOW carry case to store your powders safely.

Catherine Pooler Designs

One Set of Life of the Party Inks

(Party Dress, Tutti Fruitti, Tiara, Tiki Torch, Lime Rickey, Aquatini, Something Borrowed, Flirty Fuschia)

The CP winner will be given a code to order the inks for free from the CP online shop.

Winners will be chosen randomly from the commenters who comment on ALL THE POSTS on the hop and will be announced on the WOW! blog during the week of July 2.

Catherine Pooler 

Ardyth Percy-Robb

Ashlea Cornell

Chrissie Tobas

Ilina Crouse

Ingrid Blackburn

Jaine Drake

Jen Carter

Jennifer Colacicco

Jo Herbert 

Josefine Fouarge

Julie Hickey

Justine Hovey

Karen Baker 

Kelly Martin 

Laurel Beard 

Marion Embersom

Melissa Miller

Rosali Bartz 

Susan Powell 

Tracie Pond

Zsoka Marko

Olga Lukaseviciene

WOW!

FS594 - Super Star

Congratulations to this week's Splitcoaststampers' Featured Stamper, Shannon (aka GracelynsMommy). I chose this card as my inspiration:

I focused on Shannon's:
-layout
-sentiment partially inside, partially outside the focal image

I changed:
-added a shaker element
-colours


I started with a sheet of the new 6x6 Peacocks and Paisley patterned paper. I love the movement radiating from the centre and decided to take advantage of that by cutting my panel right out of the centre of it, using the stitched rectangle from Postage Stamp dies.

Next, I  created my 'super' 12-point star by using one of the new star dies from Catherine Pooler's Starlights dies. I cut it once, turned it and cut again.

I stamped the 'star' in both Rockin' Red and Party Dress directly on my cardbase and then built a shaker around it. I added the rest of my sentiment and some sequins on the outside, to match the ones in the shaker.

Here's a video:

I used:

Guest Designer - Pretty Pink Posh June Release

Good morning! I'm so excited to be participating in the first day of a 2-day blog hop to celebrate the Pretty Pink Posh June release! The blog list is below.

Pretty Pink Posh blog 
Yoonsun Hur
Ardyth Percy- Robb <<YOU ARE HERE
Rachel Alvarado
Gemma C.
Keeway Tsao
Heather Hoffman
Thi Lam
Angelica Conrad
Mindy Baxter
Amy Yang 

There are 4 $25 gift certificates up for grabs (two winners each day). Winners will be picked randomly along the blog hop. Comments must be left by 11:59 PM PDT on 6/19/2018. Winners will be announced on the PPP blog.

Also, there's a free gift when you spend over $60 - I featured this die in my card today!

I created a pretty watercoloured frame of geraniums for my sparkly sentiment panel. Here's a video showing the process:

But I couldn't stop at just one card - here are a few more that I made with this month's new products (and some previously-released dies).

I used the glasses from School Friends to create this background!