Pinkfresh Studio July 2022 Stamp, Die, Stencil, Washi, and Hot Foil Release

Today I’m excited to be blog hopping with Pinkfresh and friends! We are celebrating the July release and as usual, there is a load of gorgeous and versatile products coming out.

You should have come from the fabulous Emily Midgett and the next stop is the incomparable Heather Hoffman. If you get lost along the way you can find the entire lineup on the Pinkfresh blog post, as well as via the InLinkz link.

I have mixed and matched some older goodies with the new release. The Stitched Scallop Rectangle diecut is one of my all-time faves from Pinkfresh, it’s so pretty, so versatile and in my opinion it really elevates a simple card design without taking the focus away from the focal point on the card. I also love the Dotted Scalloped cover plate. It’s such a gorgeous pattern and was the perfect thing for this card.

The Go For It suite is new for July, and it’s such a lovely and dainty image, yet packs a punch. How is that for awesomeness? For this card I have used all but the stamp itself, and soft spring colours, despite it being a heat wave right now. I should have gone for fiery colours perhaps but I’m really drawn to yellow on cards.

Go For It Hot Foil

Go For It Diecut

Go For It Stencils

Go For It Stamp

After foiling the Go For It image with Matte Gold, I used the layering stencils over it to add colour. Don’t try and diecut first and then ink blend, always ink blend first and then cut it out.

I am so happy to have a coordinating diecut for this image as I’d never manage to cut this all out without chopping off a stem or leaf.

The ink colours used are Lemon Whip, Sunshine, Sweet Mustard and Grassy Knoll. I used the same yellow inks for the sentiment, which is from the Fall Leaf Border suite. The sentiments are all ink blended with the Fall Leaf Border Stencils for a really gorgeous look, and they all have coordinating diecuts too.

To put the card together I have layered up a lot of the pieces for that lovely dimensional look. The background is propped up, the sentiments are stacked, the frame is layered with a white one under the yellow, and the flower heads are raised up with foam tape. The final touch were some dainty clear crystals, for a morning dew or raindrop look.

My second card is done in a similar way, with a cover plate to add texture on the background and the Stitched Scallop Rectangles to add in a delicate touch. This cover plate is the Floral Backdrop and I used it on Soft Stone card stock from Gina K Designs.

The pattern in created with the Fall Leaf Border stencils, and bright happy ink colours. Once I had ink blended the pattern, I fussy cut along the border of them to cut off the excess white space.

Fall Leaf Border Stencils

Fall Leaf Border Sentiment Diecuts

I picked another sentiment from the set, Thank you, this time and used yellows and apricot colours to create the look before cutting them out with the coordinating diecut. These are also raised, but with foam tape this time.

To keep with the colour scheme I used Sunshine Jewels for this card, and quite a restrained amount, for me.

That is it from me for today, but I hope you have found some inspiration here with me and along the hop. The next stop is Heather Hoffman, and you can also find the entire hop list via the InLinkz list here.

As it’s a blog hop, there are of course giveaways and prizes!

GIVEAWAYS:
-You can win the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel! All you have to do is leave comments on both new release posts, and that’s it!
-There are also a total of TEN $25 gift cards to be won along the hop. Winners are drawn randomly from all the comments left on the blogs, so the more you hop and comment, the better your chances to win!

Winners will be announced on August 5, 2022 on the Pinkfresh GIVEAWAY PAGE. Please note that you must check that page and claim your prize within 2 weeks, so mark your calendars and check back!

For transparency, I have used compensated affiliate links all throughout this post, for your convenience, and at no extra cost to you. If you shop via these links I get a small commission from Pinkfresh directly as a thank you for directing you to them. Everything I earn from these links are currently going to the ‘Forever Craft Room Renovation Fund’ as I have a lot of work to be done on the room that will be my craft room in the house we bought a couple of months ago.

Here is a photo of it, and I will be making sure to share lot of updates as it comes to life. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links, I appreciate it a lot!!

Thanks again for stopping by, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Pinkfresh Studio April 2022 Washi, Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

Hi and welcome back to my blog!

Today is a great day because the Pinkfresh design team, and friends, are blog hopping to celebrate the April release! If you have arrived here from the insanely talented Emily Midgett’s blog, you are in the right place. The next stop is the one and only Heather Hoffman!

It’s another fabulous release (duh, what else, right??) and I am crazy excited about the Peony Print suite. Peonies are one of my fave flowers ever, and I have used this suite for an array of cards.

In the suite you have a Peony Print rubber background stamp, a Peony Print Hot Foil plate and coordinating layering stencils for quick and easy adding of colours.

My first card is done with the Peony Print hot foil plate and Rose Gold foil, and then some colour was added with Sparkling Rose, Apricot, Sunshine and Grassy Knoll inks using blender brushes.

The panel is so pretty as it was, so I trimmed it down a little, added it to a white card base. A frame was added using the Stitched Scallop Rectangle die, which has been layered up a little.

The last touch was added in a sentiment using ‘sending hugs‘ from the Phrase Builder: Sending diecut set, as well as some Ballet Slipper jewels.

My second card was done in the same way, only in a rainbow instead.

From top to bottom I’ve used Grassy Knoll, Aquamarine, Summer Shower, Sparkling Rose, Coral Reef, Apricot and Sunshine.

The card is finished off in the same way with the Stitched Scallop Rectangle Die, and the ‘sending hugs’ words. The jewels are also in a rainbow order, and there are quite a few more than on the first card.

I have made other cards with the same Peony Print suite, but I will share those on social media later instead, and move on to some other new goodies.

For this card I have used two new products: the Floral Diamonds cover plate, as seen below. It’s really lovely, and quickly became my favourite out of the new cover plates.

and the Simplest Gestures suite. It has a stamp set, a hot foil plate, a coordinating diecut and coordinating layering stencils.

The Floral Diamonds cover plate was used on black card stock and then added on top of a striped background to make the colours shine through the pattern. The ‘thank you’ is done using the Simplest Gestures layering stencils, which have a different sentiment on each layer, as well as coordinating diecuts in the Simplest Gestures diecut set.

I did use the Stitched Scallop Rectangle Dies for this card too. I love those dies! The final touch was some Stargazer jewels and then the card was done.

My final card was finished without a sentiment on the front, I will keep this one clear until I know who I am sending it out to.

I used the Floral Diamonds Cover plate again, but on white card stock this time. This was added to a white card base, and I used the floral image in the Simplest Gestures set. First I used the Hot Foil plate with gold foil, and then I used the coordinating layering stencils on top, before cutting it out with the coordinating diecut.

This is propped up with foam tape and then I used a few colour coordinating jewels to add to the middle of the flowers.

That’s it from me for today, and now it’s time to hop along. You can find the whole line-up for the hop via the InLinkz link here, if you want to just hop on to the next stop on the hop that’s the fabulous and inspiring Heather Hoffman.

Don’t forget that there are TEN $25 gift vouchers to be won, and all you have to do is leave comments along the blog hop.

The more you comment, the better your chance of winning. Winner will be drawn from the comments, randomly, and will be announced on the Pinkfresh giveaway winner page on May 10th. Please note that you need to check this page and get in touch within two weeks to claim your prize, if you are a winner.

You can also win the ENTIRE RELEASE by commenting on the Pinkfresh release blog post, as well as their release YouTube video, so make sure to comment on those too!

I have made a YouTube video too, and you can find that via THIS LINK HERE. Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel, hit that notification button and the thumbs up button! I look forward to seeing you there.

There are compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting me by using these links, I really appreciate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Edge-To-Edge Shaker Card and Solid Hot Foil Plate fun!

Hi guys!

It’s probably my last post before the end of 2021. Before I go into details about the card, I wanted to take this opportunity to say a big huge THANK YOU to Pinkfresh Studio, Kinnari, Lea and Heather for having had me on the Pinkfresh blog team for the last six months! I have absolutely LOVED it, and I hope I have brought some inspiration to you all during this time.

As there are only a few days left of 2021, and I did catastrophically badly with sending Christmas cards, I thought I’d focus on a New Year card today. With sparkles of course. I did turn my card into an edge-to-edge shaker and filled it with some flat-ish sequins, star shapes and glitter, but if you want to keep it simple, just add some Jewels. Or not. Not everyone is as obsessed with the bling and sparkle as I am.

First of all, you are going to want to grab a fun set of layering stencils, I picked the Layered Sunburst Stencils, and your fave colours of ink. I have, probably unsurprisingly, gone for a bit of a rainbow again, with the help of Sunshine, Bubble Gum, Candy Violet, Summer Showers and Aquamarine inks. With these five inks you can get the impression of even more colours, by blending them together.

With the first two layers of the stencils I have just gone around with the colours in the same spot, using blending brushes. With the last layer, I used an iridescent glitter gel to add some fun sparkle. While this was drying I got the Solid Hot Foil plate out and used one of the left over foils I had used with the Perfect Sentiments: Holiday hot foil plate. I couldn’t wait to give this a try, and oh boy, it did not disappoint!

I did the whole sheet while I was on a roll, and then used the coordinating diecut to cut them all out. With a bit of clever placing, I cut out another three pieces of the Happy New Year piece and layered these up. Then I popped the reversed hot foiled Happy New Year on top. This was adhered to the card smack in the middle.

I could have left it here, but did I? Nope. I decided to make it an edge-to-edge shaker and wrapped a Shaker Pocket, from Tonic Studios, around the card, added some chunky glitter, some flat sequins and silver star shapes from Studio Katia to it and sealed it up. The chunky glitter is really sticking to the pocket right over the Happy New Year, so it might be an idea to use an anti-static tool over the sentiment if you decide to try this.

Overall, I love how this turned out, and how fun it is with a shaker card. I don’t make that many, but who knows? Maybe that will change. Need to get my hands on more of those shaker pockets first though!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, have a wonderful New Years Eve and here’s to a much better 2022!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Easy, Breezy Holiday Cards with Pinkfresh Goodies!

Hi guys!

I’m back with some more Pinkfresh flowery cards today. For these cards I have used the colour scheme from the December challenge but mixed it with the Blooming Branch set. I’m slightly in denial about Christmas being so close so any excuse to use flowers and blooms, I’m in.

First of, I heat embossed the Blooming Branch stamp set with Opaque Bright White embossing powder on one panel, and with Rich Gold embossing powder on a second. Both of these are from WOW! Embossing.

First off I used the Cottontail Embossing Tool from The Rabbit Hole Design, all over my card stock. Then I stamped the Blooming Branch outline stamp with WOW! Embossing ink, with the help of my Mini MISTI.

The idea was to get a softer look on the white and more vivid on the gold. The opacity of the ink blending is actually about the same, but it does make the colours pop or soften up, with the different colours. My fave is the Rich Gold.

To add colour I have used the Blooming Branch layering stencils and the inks I used are Sparkling Rose, Berrylicious (the colour in the graphic is closer to Candy Apple, but I went slightly lighter) Sunshine, Meadow and Aquamarine.

All of these have been ink blended with blending brushes, because that is the blending tool that works best for me to get a smooth blend.

I wanted a bit of a rainbow look still (surprise, surprise, I know… ) so I started with the Sunshine in the middle, and then went pink and red towards the top and the teal and turquoise towards the bottom.

You don’t actually need that many colours to get a rainbow look, as by blending the colours together you get more than the actual numbers of inks you use. For example, yellow and red/pink, will make orange and yellow and blue makes green, and so forth.

To get this look, you add the colours in the same areas on each layer of stencil. Think in terms of lines across your stencil, if you will. You just keep building it up as you go through your stencils, and eventually you end up with this fun rainbow look.

With the colours all added, I cut them both out with the coordinating diecut and on the back of these, I added foam tape to raise them up on the card. However, I had to make my backgrounds first and the sentiments too, of course.

I’m totally obsessed with the Abstract Triangle hot foil plate, so I used it on two panels with my Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil system. One with Matte Gold and one with Opal, which I at first thought I might have actually hot foiled the plate with instead of the paper…

Luckily for me, it was foiled to the paper, but the Opal hot foil is very subtle. It looks more like an embossing folder, than hot foiling. Which is another use for your hot foil plates! You can actually use them to add dry embossing, and add pattern to your card stock as well as use them for hot foiling.

While I had the Glimmer Hot Foil system out and hot, I decided to use the Thrill Of Hope hot foil plate for the sentiment. On these I used gold foil, and then I cut these out with the coordinating diecut. I also cut out an extra piece to layering up the hot foiled piece to make them slightly sturdier.

The background pieces were trimmed down a little and then directly adhered to a card base each. On top of these I added the Blooming Branch pieces, the sentiments and then I just had to add some Jewels to add even more pizzazz! I can’t help myself, I love these Jewels and they are such a perfect finishing touch.

The colours I have used are from top to bottom: Ballet Slipper, Sunshine and Ocean Breeze. If you like jewels like these, you might as well grab the Essentials Jewels Mix, which has 12 different colours in it.

That’s it from me for today, but I hope you found some inspiration here and don’t forget that you can still take part in the December challenge. You can win a $50 gift card to the Pinkfresh Studio shop just by taking part, so what are you waiting for? Go on, have some fun and play along. The deadline is December 28th, so plenty to of time and you can enter 5 projects!

Right, I will stop jibber-jabbering now and let you go. Thank you so much for stopping by, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
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Happy Holidays card with Blooming Branches

Hi guys!

Today I am popping in with another Pinkfresh card, but not with the new release. Nope, at the time of writing this, that package is still on holiday somewhere here in Spain.

The upside, if there ever was one to not having the new release to work with is that it gave me an excuse to play with the Abstract Triangle hot foil plate and the Blooming Branch set. Two of my faves from the earlier releases! Instead of going summery, even though they are flowers, I went for a red and green holiday card!

First off I have heat embossed the Blooming Branch outline stamp on two pieces of card stock, in gold embossing powder. On top of these I then used the Blooming Branch Layering stencils and inkblended Passion Fruit, Berrylicious and Candy Apple for the flower petals, plus a little Apricot for the middle of the flowers.

For the leaves I used a VERY light touch of Grassy Knoll on the first stencil layer, on the first panel. The second panel got a more rich layer of the same colour. On the second stencil layer I used a very light touch of Olive on the first panel, and Grassy Knoll on the second one again, but a much more intense layer.

When I was all done with the layering stencils, I used the coordinating diecut on them both and set aside. While I had worked on these, my Glimmer hot foil machine had been warming up with the Abstract Triangle hot foil plate on it. I do find that I get much better results when my plate is very thoroughly warmed up, so I pop mine on the platform as soon as I click it on.

I used shiny gold foil on white card stock, and then on top of the pattern, I ink blended more Grassy Knoll ink, but left some white space at the bottom left corner. This panel is also trimmed down to 4¨x5.25¨, and adhered to a white card base with foam tape. On top of this I arranged the two Blooming Branch images to create a thick wreath of sorts, and this is also adhered with foam tape, for that lush dimension.

The final thing was to add a sentiment, and I used the Glimmer hot foil machine again, this time with the Thrill Of Hope hot foil plate that says Happy Holidays. It’s cut out with the coordinating diecut, and I also cut out another two pieces to layer this whole shebang up. Gotta have those layers and dimension, lol!

So that’s the card finished! I hope you like it and found some inspiration with me here today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and see you soon again!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

LDRS Garden Grandeur cards, two ways and DIY mini-slimline.

Hi guys!

Today I’m back with a couple of cards, with the same products, just different colours.

 All three pieces: the Garden Grandeur Slimline stamp set, the coordinating diecut and the coordinating layering stencils. 

As a summer loving gal, I’m all about the florals and sunshine. Even with it being October. Luckily for me I live in a sunny and warm place, and lots of flowers are still blooming here. 

 

With these fun layering stencils I had an idea of doing a cascading rainbow for one, and more natural looking colours on the other one. Purely for research purposes of course, lol. 

Before I did anything else though, I swatched the inks I have. I like my swatches as it’s not always easy to tell what the inks will look like on paper, from what they look like as an ink pad.

 

Another little quirk I have is that I like to keep brands together, so I used one of the pieces from the Diagonal Stitched Postage Frames Slimline dies to cut out the swatch pieces. On these I then dragged the ink pads to get lots of colour on it, marked it with a label and then punched a hole in it. 

So my first card is done with the more natural colours, and I went for Soft Kisses for the bigger flowers, Dan-D-Lion for the smaller and Olive Branch for both layers for the layers. I have only used the layering stencils for these, not the outline stamp. 

For the rainbow one, I used, from top to bottom: Dan-D-Lion, Soft Kisses, La La Lavender, Marina Madness and Tropical Sea. I aimed to do the same colours in the same spots on all the different layers, but it wasn’t 100% spot on. Still turned out lovely though! 

As I wanted to go more mini slimline for these cards, rather than full-size slimline I did some creative diecutting using the Diagonal Stitched Postage Frames Slimline dies as I wanted some pattern around the edges. 

 

On the back of the flowers, once I had used the coordinating diecut on them, I covered them with foam tape to prop them up and create dimension. Dimension and layers are life, if you ask me. 

The last thing needed was sentiments, and I have used the same one from the Garden Grandeur stamp set, stamped up with Raven ink on white card stock. Both of these are trimmed down in different ways, and then adhered to the cards. 

 

Ok, so I might have said the last thing was sentiments, but I did go a bit big on the bling on the rainbow flowers but hey, I had the perfect gems to do it so I had to. HAD to. I couldn’t not do it. 

The pink flowers were kept bling free to show that I can go clean and simple too. Occasionally. Mostly with my Inner Crafty Drama Queen kicking and screaming, but still.

 

I did make a video for these cards too. You can find that over on my YouTube channel, if you want to see more of the process, but if not, thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed these cards and the summer vibes coming through your screen. 

Until next time, lots of love and happy crafting from Erica 

 

Pinkfresh Lush Peonies cards and New Inks from Catherine Pooler!

Hi guys!

It’s a summer loving Erica on the blog today (in fairness, that is me every day), with a trio of summer coloured cards, using the lovely Lush Peonies set from Pinkfresh Studios. I’ve gone for a soft look by only using the layering stencils to add colours. It does look amazing stamping or heat embossing the outline stamp on top though.

Because I’m a total weirdo, I have this inability to just make one card at a time. I guess I figure while I have the stuff out, might as well have some fun and see what happens. Things escalate a lot in my craft room… so while I planned on making two for this post, I ended up with three.

For the first two I have used the layering stencils with yellow, orange, coral and pink shades for all layers. Leaves and everything. Pink leaves anyone?

It was only the third one that has somewhat natural colours, with pink flowers and green leaves. I think the one with the yellow leaves is my favorite though, there is something about it that really appeals to me.

I did use the coordinating diecut to cut all three florals out, and then sat these aside while I worked on the backgrounds. I decided to stick to a summery colour palette and cut out strips of coloured card stock using the widest strip in the Essentials Slim Cuts Slim Stripes.

Instead of stacking these close to each other, I have left a little bit of a gap in between. To space them evenly I used my grid mat to measure the spaces and then adhered them with double sided tape.

The floral images where adhered to the backgrounds and the final touch was to add a slim banner, again using the Essentials Slim Cuts Slim Stripes diecut, but the middle size this time, with the sentiment ‘you are amazing‘ on each one. Super simple but fun to make and giving summer vibes!

With that, the Pinkfresh Studios cards are done and in other news, there are also six new ink colours from Catherine Pooler to add to the Cranberry Fizz and Deck The Halls inks, in the Luxe Collection.

Click here if you want to grab this lush red colour. The second colour available already is Deck The Halls, and it’s a deep pine green.

The new colours available are Glitz, Flame, Glam, Dress Blue, Uptown and Martini. You can get each one on their own, with ink pads and reinkers, or in a ink pads only bundle.

I’ve swatched these colours, using the tag die in the Hearts-n-tags set.

I also used them on a card to do some ink blending as well as stencil printing. These inks blend so well, and work with so many techniques, which I love!

There is also some other fun goodies available from Catherine Pooler, and anyone who knows me knows I love a good word die and cover plates.

I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you, so if you use these links to shop I get a small commission from the company directly. As a thank you for directing you to them. It’s earnings from affiliate links that help me keep my blog, YouTube channel and instagram running, as well as fresh and fun. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by using these links, I really appreciate it more than you will ever know!

Also, thank you so much for stopping by today, I hope you found some inspiration here!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Garden Roses cards, three ways!

Hi guys! 

It’s another Pinkfresh Studio blog post today, with some cards using the Garden Roses set from the newest release. Have you seen it yet? Oh, my gosh, so many gorgeous florals.

I haven’t even used all of the new layering stencils yet, I got kind of wrapped up with the Lush Peonies set. I love how easy it is to add pops of colour using the layering stencils, and also how user friendly they are. For those who are not confident with colouring, this is a great solution!

Oh, and the Blooming Branch set. It’s so lovely and delicate. This I had a lot of fun with, and I’m definitely not done with it.

But I digress. So far I’ve made 12 cards with the new release, and that isn’t even with all the products released. It was time to use the Garden Roses set!

I absolutely love florals, and flowers in general. *good job on stating the obvious, Erica*

One thing that I find really great about these florals is that they cover an A2 card, so you can keep them the focal point and just add your own spin to backgrounds and other details. Oh, and changing up the colour scheme of course. So many colours. Why pick just one, when you can use them all?? Or different from what would be found in nature, because why not? Let your imagination run wild and see what happens?

For these cards I have gone quite natural with pinks and reds. No crazy combos, just yet, but I totally haven’t ruled it out yet! That’s the fun thing about crafting, you don’t have to make it realistic, go nuts with colours that make your creativity go ‘oh yes, let’s do that!’ 

My first card is done by using only the Garden Roses Layering Stencils and ink blending pinks, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss, for the roses and Grassy Knoll for the leaves. I used the same green on both layers, but on the first one I used what was left on my Grassy Knoll blender brush. I’ve recently gone a bit extra and bought enough blender brushes so I could have one for each one of my Pinkfresh inks… it’s a bit nuts, but what can I say? I got a great deal on them, and was on the ‘organising zone’. Stay away from that zone if you don’t want to get swept up in organising purchases that might be hard to explain. Just FYI. 

With the coordinating diecut I cut the floral image out, and I also cut out another two pieces out of white card stock. These I layered up with liquid adhesive, and then I set that aside while I worked on the background. 

This is done by stamping the Garden Roses image twice, directly onto a card base, and then heat embossing that in white. I’ve used Opaque Bright White Superfine embossing powder and the WOW! Embossing ink pad, but first I used my anti static tool all over the panel. It gives a little bit of interest and texture to the background without taking away any of the attention of the star of the show: The ink blended Garden Roses image. 

On a slim banner I stamped up ‘It’s been too long‘ in Black ink and after adhering the floral image to the card base, I adhered that too. I nearly stopped here but could my bling-loving heart agree with me? Nope. So I got a few… a good sprinkling… ok, ok, a GENEROUS sprinkling of Ballet Slipper jewels out and dotted them around the image and then I could finally stop. 

I do like how it turned out though, but I understand that not everyone loves bling to the level I do. 

The next Garden Roses image was also ink blended but this time with Coral Reef,  Passion Fruit and Berrylicious for the flowers, and Key Lime and Olive for the leaves. I used the coordinating diecut on this image as well, and then loaded it up with foam squares on the back to create height and dimension. It’s nice to try different ways of add dimension, and see what works best for you and what you prefer.

The background for this card is done with matte gold foil and the Diagonal Hot Foil plate. Oh, gold and white is such a classic combo, isn’t it?? I trimmed this panel down a little and adhered that to a card base.

I will say that it took me a long time to get to grips with hot foiling, but despite swearing like a sailor at times because it wasn’t working, I’m glad I stuck with it. I have the Spellbinders Glimmer Hot Foil system, for those of you wondering.

The floral image was adhered to this and only then did I start thinking of sentiments.. oy! Sometimes you get a bit carried away and have to work around what you have already committed to ie glued down! This happens to me more often than not… not going to lie.

I grabbed a friend word diecut that I already had cut out, and stamped up ‘you are amazing’ in Black Ink on another slim banner. This is from the Lush Peonies stamp set. These were then layered up on top of the roses and a Stargazer jewel was used as the dot over the ‘I’ as I had lost that. 

The final card was done by heat embossing the outline stamp from the Garden Floral set on heavy weight vellum. Then I flipped this over and grabbed the stencils too. These I turned over, and used the ‘wrong’ way to add colour to the back of the vellum for a super soft look. 

The white heat embossing stayed crisp and bright white this way, and I loved how it turned out. This was adhered to a piece of white card stock to make sure the colours were forced to shine through.

I did trim this down a bit too much, which I covered up by adding a strip of black foiled background, with the Diagonal hot foil plate, before adding this whole thing to a card base. 

Keeping the sentiment simple again, to let the roses take centre stage, I used the You word die that I had made with Licorice (black card stock) and white card stock. The sentiment is finished off with ‘are the best’ on another slim banner, this is from the Blooming Branch stamp set, so the full sentiment says ‘you are the best’.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and these cards. Which one is your favourite? I’d love to hear what else has grabbed you from this release.

Are you one of the many winners from the Release Blog Hop and the Instagram Hop? Don’t forget to check out the Winner Announcement page over at Pinkfresh, it’s up to you to email Lea and claim your prize. You have two weeks to do so, so don’t dilly-dally!

I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. If you shop with these links, remember that it doesn’t ever cost you a single penny/cent/ruble/krona extra. The company these links are affiliated with pay me a small commission directly, as a thank you for directing you their way. These earnings help keep my blog, YouTube and Instagram shenanigans going, and keep the content fun and fresh for you. Thank you so much for the support, encouragement and continued love you guys give me. I really appreciate it, more than I can ever express in words.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms, by clicking the links below.
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Instagram
My YouTube channel
CaCaCraft on Facebook

Fun collaboration with fun companies and fun products!

Hi everyone!

I’m back, again! This time it’s a two in one, rather than two separate posts. Today I’m taking part in two Instagram hops:

Click on the graphic to go to the post for the Picket Fence hop.

One is Waffle Flower with Picket Fence Studios, you can find my Instagram HERE. If you only want to hop along with one company, keep an eye out for the graphics and check the logo at the top to identify the post you want.

Click on the graphic to go to the post for Pinkfresh Studio

The second is Waffle Flower with Pinkfresh Studios. Both of the PFS teams are collaborating with Waffle Flower in celebrating their new stencilling mat and accessories, now available from Waffle Flower shop.

I got to play with the Stencil Mat, and I was a bit sceptical to be honest. Is this something I would have spent money on myself? Probably not as I already have the Water Media Mat. At least that was my opinion until I tried the Stencil Mat… I am a typical Taurus, and by that I don’t mean The Man’s definition of me as stubborn and bull-headed, both figuratively and literal. He calls my little curly crazies horns, and thinks he’s soooooo funny *insert rolling eyes here* but I digress. My point is that I’m wary of change and I’m sometimes slow to warm up to things.

Turns out it’s actually rather clever… (I also don’t like admitting I’m wrong, which thankfully I don’t have to do very often with The Man, lol) thanks to the silicone it’s sticking down onto your desk and isn’t flopping around, and it also helps keep my card stock in place. Huh. Interesting, right? I usually use lots of washi tape to hold my stencils in place because getting ahold of Pixie Spray in Europe is like finding ice in the Sahara (I’m being a tad dramatic here because I’m all out and I love that stuff) so I think that is a tick in the box for ‘good stuff’.

The Stencil Mat also easy to clean off, which is another tick for good, BUT it needs to be said that it does stain very easily. Not that it hinders the use of it, not in the slightest, but if that’s something that will bug you and you know it, this might not be for you. Be honest with yourself about this before investing in either of the mats.

Accessories wise you can get the stencilling mat in a Mini Stencil Mat size too, as well as Duo Brush Holders, a brush stand and Waffle Flower blender brushes. I also received the Duo Brush Holders and the Brush Stand that I use with my Life Changing Blender Brushes (in rainbow order, of course) from Picket Fence Studios. A clever thing about the Duo Brush holders is that they have big “feet” that slot into the square holes in the Water Media Mat, that I also have and did purchase myself.

Ok, so first off, I made a few cards with the Pinkfresh Studios Holiday Botanical Background Stencils and autumnal colours. I’m a summer gal through and through, but I do love autumn colours. So much so I made two cards, using slightly similar colour palettes.

One is fiery reds and oranges, with a sprinkling of purples. On this one I didn’t use the final stencil, which is the berries, as I felt the autumn vibe didn’t really need it. On this one I added quite a few sequins in a muted rose gold colour. These I got from a haberdashery so I have no idea what they are called, but pretty they are for sure!

The sentiment does say ‘Seasons Greetings‘ and I did foil it in Rose Gold glimmer foil with the hot foil plate. It’s also stacked with two more diecut layers to give it some dimension. As the background was trimmed down a little, I adhered this whole thing to a card base of Sunflower card stock from Lawn Fawn.

The second card is also done with the Holiday Botanical Background stencils, and purples. Here I have also used the browns; Doe, Gathered Twigs and Espresso, as well as Persimmon for the berries.

The berries are also heat embossed with Clear Gloss embossing powder from WOW! Embossing Powder to make them pop a little bit more.

Around the edges I ink blended whatever was left on the brush I had used with Persimmon and Doe, to give it a vintage feel. Having the card stock on the stencilling mat made it very easy to ink blend to do this.

The middle is left completely white to make the sentiment, Happy Holidays from Happy Holiday Circle Frame set, really stand out. This I heat embossed with Rose Gold, used the coordinating diecut on and layered up with another three pieces to give it lots of dimension.

So, that’s it for the Waffle Flower and Pinkfresh Studio collaboration part.

For the Waffle Flower and Picket Fence Studios collaboration, I used the Details Of A Wing stencil, lots of Life Changing Blender Brushes and from top left to bottom right corner inks: Lavender, Summer Shower, Fresh Pear, Lemon Whip, Apricot, Bubble Gum and Berrylicious. I tapped off a lot of the ink on the lids of the ink pads and on the Stencil Mat, then blended with a VERY light hand.

I think this would look so cool with a thin layer of Sparkle Paper Glitz on top, but that could be for another card. *saves idea in head and hopes it will pop up again at a later date*

I also coloured the Capricorn Girl with Copics, and then used the coordinating diecut on it. I coloured her with very dramatic colouring, from the teal ombrè hair, Kim K contoured makeup and coloured contacts, she pops!

While I had my die cutting machine I also cut out the Happy Birthday Word Topper twice out of white card stock and layered these up, with Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive. On top of this I stamped up ‘I hope you have a fantastic day’, from the Word Topper Subtitles stamp set, with Black Hybrid Ink.

These bits were then adhered to the ink blended background, and the card was finished! I’m still toying with the idea of adding some bling to this but I’m trying to resist the urge.

Right, so that’s it for now. I hope you have enjoyed these cards, and get a chance to hop along with us. There is bound to be lots of amazing inspiration along the way because the card makers along the stop are totally amazeballs!

As always, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post and, for transparency, Waffle Flower sent me the Stencil Mat, Duo Brush Holder and the Brush Stand to take part in this hop. Thank you to Waffle Flower for that!

Don’t forget to check out my blog post from yesterday too, about the Picket Fence Studios September Release. If you want to shop the new release, you can hop on over to the Picket Fence Studios shop by clicking HERE. Please be patient though, and see the notice from Picket Fence Studios below:

If you have been eyeing the new Paper Glitz, you can get those in AN ALL-IN BUNDLE, with all of the colours available. This stuff is amazing, I’m already so obsessed with Paper Glaze, and then Paper Glitz came along… and oooooh. I love making my own metallic and glitter card stock, as this is (to me) better value for money AND you can colour match to your project, which is fab.

Ok, I will let you get going now. Thanks again for stopping by, and if you shop with my compensated affiliate links, thank you so much for supporting me this way! Remember that shopping with affiliate links never cost you anything extra at all, but I do have to declare that I use them.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Magical Wintry Forest stencilling cards | Pops of colour, without colouring!

Hi guys!!

Today’s post is all about ink blending extravaganza, using the lovely and totally dreamy Wintry Forest layering stencils and yummy inks from Pinkfresh Studio!

I absolutely love stencils because they are so versatile and affordable. Stencils that can cover several occasions also add to their allure. At first glance you might think that this Wintry Forest stencil isn’t going to be meant for anything but holiday cards, buuuuuut I’m hoping I will make you see that it’s actually rather versatile.

Ok, full disclosure, I DID end up using foiled sentiments from the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set, because I have finally cracked foiling after it eluded me for ages. It took watching many videos by Yana Smakula and Channin Pelletier to get to grips with it, so if you are struggling like I was, know that there is a knack to it and don’t give up!

Currently the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set is sold out, but the Perfect Sentiments set is in stock. If you definitely want the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set, make sure to sign up for back into stock notifications.

Having said that, these backgrounds would work for all sorts of occasions, like thinking of you, sympathy, retirement, masculine birthday and nature lovers birthdays.

Instead of going for the expected look with greens for the Wintry Forest stencils, I went purple, blue and then fiery with yellows, oranges, red and fuchsias. I also added a generous splattering of gold on all three, because I love that as a finishing touch.

For the first card I used all the purples, from light to dark, Soft Lilac, Lavender ,Candy Violet  and Regal Kiss. The last layer is LOTS of Regal Kiss for that deep, dark purple colour.

Because I love blues I also used the Morning Sky blues: Sky Blue, Summer Shower, Seaside and Storm. These are just dreamy. On this one I used Sky Blue for the first two layers, very soft on the first and a bit more saturated for the second layer.

For the last card I used Lemon Whip and Sunshine, Apricot and Persimmon, Coral Reef and Berrylicious, and finally Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss. I used the lighter colour first, and then added a little bit of depth and intensity with the darker colour after. On this one, I didn’t line up the stencils according to the markings either, to leave a little bit more white towards the bottom so you could still see that there were different layers.

When I had finished the ink blending, I popped them, one by one, into a box and splattered some gold watercolour on them. After these had dried, I trimmed the blue and the purple down a little and adhered them to white card bases.

The sentiments I picked out are done with both rose gold and gold foil, using the Perfect Sentiments Holiday set. I also cut out some extra pieces using the coordinating diecut, and layered the sentiments up for a little bit of dimension.

The purple card got a rose gold foiled Merriest Christmas. This one is layered up with two more pieces to pop it up a little.

The blue one got a Warmest Wishes in gold foil. This one is also popped up with two pieces.

The fiery forest got a rose gold foiled Merry & Bright. This one has three pieces for more depth and dimension. This one isn’t trimmed down, but I probably should have done that. However, I had adhered the sentiment already, so I couldn’t trim it. Oops.

Ok, that’s it from me for today, I hope you enjoyed this post too, and will try an unexpected colour combination yourself with your stencils. You never know how it will turn out until you give it a go!

As always, I have used compensated affiliate links in this post at no extra cost to you. Shopping with affiliate links does not cost you anything extra at all, the company it’s linked to will pay me a small commission as a thank you for directing you to them. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of this blog, my YouTube channel and Instagram. A little bit will be put aside to renovations of my forever craft room as well, as we are in the process of buying our forever home, which is so exciting! Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links, I really do appreciate it so much! 

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

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