Tag: crafting

Pinkfresh Studio December 2021 Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

Hi guys! Today I am super excited to celebrate the last release of 2021 from Pinkfresh Studio with a blog hop! The rest of the design team and friends of Pinkfresh have really knocked this release out of the park!

For my projects I have used lots and lots of the gorgeous In The Meadow Washi tape. Oh and the coordinating In The Meadow diecut and In The Meadow stamp set.

It’s such a gorgeous washi, and once I got on a roll with it, I couldn’t stop. Get it? On a roll? *snickers at my own pun* I also made a YOUTUBE VIDEO, showing the entire release and all the projects I made!

I rolled out the washi tape onto wide strips of sturdy card stock, I used 110lb Neenah card stock for this, and then used the coordinating diecut to cut out all the pieces. The coordinating diecut is absolutely genius as it’s all one piece, all you have to do is line it up and it cuts out everything in one go. Same with the coordinating stamp set, so freaking genius!

Once you have your pieces cut out, and why not do a big bunch while you are on a roll? *snickers again, it’s a solid pun* Keep the rest of the pieces in a little storage pocket, either from Avery Elle or the slimline pouches from Picket Fence Studios, and pop that into your Extra Large storage pocket that works a treat for keeping all your coordinating goodies together.

On this slimline card I have used another new fun goodie: The Blanket Stitch Slimline and Mini Slimline Rectangles diecuts. You get the Pinkfresh regular slimline AND mini slimline diecuts in one, and they both have that lovely blanket stitched detail around the edges.

The card is finished off with a sentiment from the Always Uplifting stamp set, and a hot foiled Celebrate that’s cut out with the coordinating diecut.

On the first card I used the slimline size and on the next one I used the mini slimline size, of the Blanket Stitched Slimline Rectangles.

I also heat embossed the sentiment from the In The Meadow stamp set, in Rich Gold from WOW! Embossing. Before stamping up the sentiment I used the new Cottontail Embossing Tool all over the panel, this is a super-duper new anti-static tool from The Rabbit Hole Design, that contains Kaolin clay, rather than baby powder (which I can not stand the smell of, yuk)

The In The Meadow flowers are then arranged around the sentiment, and with that this mini slimline card was done. It really is so quick and easy to make a beautiful card fast with these washi tapes!

Next up, I made a couple of A2/5.5″x4.25″ cards, because I had to make all the sizes, basically.

For this card I used only the big pieces, but one of them I trimmed down to fill out the flower meadow. These pieces are arranged on a slightly smaller piece of white card stock, which is then adhered to the card base with foam tape for some dimension.

To finish off this card I used the Love from the Brushed Sentiment hot foil set. I did it in Rose Gold foil and then cut it out using the coordinating die.

I couldn’t resist adding the new Sparkling Champagne Metallic Pearls, because they are gorgeous! I love them (surprise, surprise)

I used them on my second A2 card as well, because well, I couldn’t put them away. On this card I adhered the In The Meadow pieces from the top, for another look.

This card is done in a similar way, only I didn’t use foam tape for the background piece. On this one I used the foam tape behind the flower pieces instead. I also used the new Heart Grid Hot Foil plate, again with Rose Gold foil.

The sentiment is from the In The Meadow stamp set, and I stamped it up with Black Hybrid ink on a banner that I cut out with the Essentials Slim Stripe diecuts.

Of course I had to use the Sparkling Champagne Metallic Pearls on this one too.

As I had so many flower bits left over, I decided to make a little tag too!

This is the Foldable Shaker Tag, and it’s so clever as you can get two tags out of one diecut. I added a little bit of Key Lime ink by blending it super softly, and then placing the flowers onto the tag.

It’s finished off with a Happy Holidays diecut sentiment, from the Holiday Circle Frames set and a few Sparkling Champagne Metallic Pearls.

That’s it from me for today, but don’t forget to hop along with the rest of the design team and the guests, as there is so much inspiration! Unfortunately I can’t get the InLinkz thingy to work, but the next stop is the amazing Heather Hoffman.

As always there are some amazing GIVEAWAYS:

-We will be giving away the full release on the Pinkfresh blog & YouTube channel. 

-We will be giving away a total of TEN $25  gift cards along the hop. As per usual with blog hops – the winners will be picked from the comments, so the more you hop and comment, the better your chances of winning!

Winners will be posted on December 14, 2021 on the Pinkfresh GIVEAWAY PAGE. You have to check this page yourself, and get in touch if you are one of the winners. Do not forget, but you have two weeks to claim your winnings if you are on the list!

InLinkz lineup here.

PS I have used compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart if you chose to support me by using my links, I really appreciate the support!

As mentioned, there is also a YouTube video for the release and all the projects I made. You can CLICK HERE to watch it.

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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Re-cap of #TheDailyMarker30Day challenge.

Hi and welcome back to my little blog!

If you like colouring, you might have heard of The Daily Marker hosted by Kathy Racoosin. It’s a challenge where she challenges you to take 5 minutes per day to yourself and colour, with whatever medium of your choice. The challenge is running for the whole month of August, and I have been taking part every day.

This is a re-cap of my projects from the first eight days, as it started on a Sunday Aug 1st. My aim is to do a re-cap post every Sunday with the cards and colouring I have done for it.

For Day1 I picked this cute penguin stamp from Mama Elephant. I adore these guys. It’s coloured in with Copics and then I ink blended a background with Squeezed Lemonade, Salvaged Patina and Chipped Sapphire. It’s my current fave combo!

The background is splattered with some gold watercolour from the Starry Night palette from Kuretake. It’s my go-to for gold. The card is finished off with the word die that comes with the coordinating diecuts for the penguins.

You can find a reel for this card HERE.

On Day 2 and 3 I coloured in this fabulous Botan Peony from Picket Fence Studios, with Fuchsia and pink copics. This card is finished off with a word die from Neat & Tangled (they have sadly closed down) and a generous sprinkling of Clear Sparkling sequins.

There is a reel for this one too, and you can find that HERE.

Day4 I made a card as part of my WOW! Embossing design team commitments, with the Snowflake stencil and Midnight embossing powder from the Twilight Trio.

I also ink blended some Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot around the edges for some drama, added some gold strips on each side of the card and a sentiment in Rich Gold embossing powder. There is a reel for this one HERE.

This card was actually for Day5, but I forgot to post it on my Instagram that day, oops. I have recently joined the Crafty Meraki design team and will be making a couple of videos a month for them. I used the Elegance stamp set and coordinating diecut for my first video, which I coloured in with Ink On 3 Atelier re-inkers mixed with Liquid Pixie Dust to make shimmery watercolour. To get the no-line colouring effect I used the Fadeout ink, also from Ink On 3.

This is the finished card and and you can find the video on the Crafty Meraki YouTube channel.

Day 5 was also dedicated to doggie cards! The reason being that my sister has adopted a little shelter doggie called Otto, and we are all smitten!

These doggie stamps are from Colorado Craft Company, and are illustrated by Anita Jeram. The card above, with images from Wishing You Happines, is coloured in with Copics, and finished off with one of the sentiment from the stamp set, as well as Otto cut out with In Stitches Alpha Dienamics from MFT Stamps.

The one below is from Watch This! stamp set, and it´s done with water colours, as well as the same Dienamics to spell out Adoption. The reel for these two can be found HERE.

I am also going to make a little mini-album or something to send to my sister so she can keep a little mini-diary of her journey with Otto.

On Day6 I tried some new-to-me markers, Paint Pens, from Artistro and tried some rock painting! I had never done this before, so this was completely new to me. I did make a big rainbow and then a little heart rainbow on a smaller rock.

I have a reel for the big one HERE, and I think I will share the one I made for the little rock too. If you are interested in trying these, you can get 10% off by using the code ERICAANDERSSONB.

On Day8 I made another rainbow, only this time on paper and completely flat. This stamp set is Rainbows, it´s from Avery Elle and I just adore it. I used a ridiculous amount of Copics for the colouring, but that happens all the time. I always use so many markers to get depth and details.

I finished it with a sentiment from the stamp set, a friend diecut from Mama Elephant and lots of Crystal Clear Fusion sequins from Studio Katia. The reel for this card can be found HERE.

Well, that’s it for me for today, I hope you have enjoyed this little re-cap. I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, as well as some suitable alternatives in the links below, in case you want to snap up a little something-something for yourself. Shopping with these links do not cost you anything extra at all, the company it’s linked to will give me a small commission directly as a thank you for pointing you in their direction. Thank you so much if you use these links, I really appreciate the support!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica!
If you want to see more of my work, I have linked to my social media accounts below. I’d love it you’d give me a follow there!

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5K Subscribers Together | Rainbow Hop |video hop winner announcements!

Hi *waves sheepishly*

Back in June my friend Maria Willis, AKA CardBomb, and I hosted a YouTube video hop together, celebrating (a bit early) reaching 2.5K subscribers each. At the time of the hop, neither one of us had actually made it there, and we are still a bit short. We are also very late with the winner announcements. Apologies about that, life happened at a rapid pace for both of us and we couldn’t get it done in time.

If you want to skip straight to the VIDEO CLICK HERE.

If you missed the Rainbow themed video, and the entire hop, you should definitely check it out as we roped in some of our fabulous crafty friends to hop along with us!

For that video I only managed one card, but of course it was a sparkly-licious rainbow card! It was so fun to make and I love that extra pop of the sparkle on the rainbow. If you want to read all about it, you can find that BLOG POST HERE.

I used an array of the companies that sponsored the hop, including Pinkfresh, Picket Fence Studios, Concord&9th, Hero Arts and WOW! Embossing.

For this video I decided to use another mix of sponsors, to highlight them a bit too. They so generously offered prizes and the hop would definitely not have been the same without them.

The first card I made with a gorgeous stencil from Gina K Designs, called Mandala Burst. Stencils are one of my fave items to work with, they are so versatile and affordable! After spraying the stencils with Pixie Spray, I set those aside to cure for a few minutes (this is a critical step, do not skip this!) while I got out the rest of the stuff I wanted to use.

First off I inkblended some Atelier Inks, from Ink On 3, through the Mandala Burst stencil with my Life Changing Blender Brushes, from left to right Peacock Blue, Goddess Green, Bee Sting Yellow, Marigold Orange and Sweet Petunia Pink.

Over this I stamped the Love Is Love Bold Print from Hero Arts, in black ink with the help of my MISTI. Thanks to having just re-inked my Black Hybrid ink pad I only needed to stamp once but better safe than sorry, right??

With the background panel done, I trimmed it down with a stitched rectangle die from Lawn Fawn. While I had my Diecutting machine out I cut out three ‘thinking of you’ out of white card stock and one out of black card stock. These I layered up with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive, and then on the top (black) layer I heat embossed Clear Gloss embossing powder to give it a nice shiny look. I did two layers of it, for that puffy sticker look. I love that, and it’s one of my fave ways to elevate word dies.

A sentiment from the Thinking Of You stamp set, the coordinating stamps to the word die, was stamped up in black ink on white card stock and trimmed down. This was addhed to the card, and the word die right underneath it. With that, the first card was done. Without a single sequin on it too!! Whaaaaa??

The second card was done with a rainbow stencil from Erin Lee Creative. This one was part of a kit, and isn’t available now, BUT she has a load of other super fun rainbow stencils and rainbow dies. You defintely want to check out her shop and support a small business!

Instead of ink blending, I used my beloved Paper Glazes from Picket Fence Studios. I absolutely LOVE these, not only are they fun to play with but they look fan-freaking-amazeballs-tastic too. That shimmer and shine is enough to mesmerize me, every time!

From left to right, I’ve used Agapatha Purple, Peony Pink, Daffodil Yellow, Lime Zinnia, Ocean Poppy and Cornflower Blue. I actually did this right after I had done the ink blending for the first card, and while the Paper Glaze was drying I worked on all the other bits and pieces for the first card. Multi tasking and all that, right?

I used the same stitched rectangle die on this panel and then it was simply finished off with a sweet sentiment in black ink. The one I chose is from a Gina K Design stamp set, called Watercolor Flowers. Super simple, but with a pop of colour and a sweet sentiment, you don’t need much else sometimes.

That’s it from me for today, but don’t forget to check out the WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT VIDEO to see if you are one of the many winners!! Also, Maria wrote a blog post on her blog and made a video for her YouTube channel, so make sure to check out those as well.

Some compensated affiliate links have been used in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, Instagram and YouTube channel so thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with these links. I really appreicate it!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

5K Together YouTube Subscribers Hop!

Hi everyone!

Today’s post is a little celebration for myself and a dear crafting friend, Maria Willis, for sort of reaching a milestone of 5000 subscriber combined. I didn’t quite make it to the 2.5K subscribers as I had hoped, as I haven’t been so active recently due to a stressful family situation. If you haven’t heard anything about it, my FIL is not doing well and will have a very risky operation on Monday, after over a month in hospital. The Man flew out this morning and it was quite stressful and hectic to get it all sorted and organised. Hecking pandemic, eh??

If you want to skip right to the hop, start over at Maria’s YouTube video, and go from there. I am the last stop on the loop, but if you want to go to my video, you can click on THIS LINK to get there.

Life is tough at times and I think it’s important to celebrate and cherish the happy times as you never know when the tide will turn. Hence this little hop! Maria and I roped in some of our crafty friends to make the hop bigger than just two stops, and you are not going to want to miss their projects! The full hop list can be found below, and we also have some super generous companies sponsoring prizes for a massive giveaway to celebrate us.

I have a couple little projects to share today, and as the theme for the hop is ‘Rainbow’ I’ll start with that one:

Out of Neenah Solar White #110 card stock, I cut out two rainbows using the Color Block Rainbow die from Pinkfresh Studio. I did two because I wanted to layer up the pieces for some dimension on the card.

Each ‘ray’ of the rainbow got colour added in a slight ombré effect, with Life Changing Blender Brushes from Picket Fence Studios (my go-to blending tools!) and ink colours from Concord & 9th, and also a dab of Ballet Slipper from Pinkfresh. I don’t know why I didn’t use the pink from Concord & 9th. Who knows what goes on in this head of mine at times??

Once they were all colourful and pretty, I glued them down with the Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive onto the second, intact, rainbow, and this in turn was adhered to another piece of card stock for sturdiness. The excess was trimmed off with scissors. I needed it very sturdy as I wanted to heat emboss Halo Glitter Powder from WOW! Embossing on top for shimmer.

This process is very simple: dab your embossing ink pad all over the rainbow, make sure it’s nice and juicy first though. Then sprinkle the Halo Glitter on top and set that with your heat tool. The simmer is insane and I love it!

Sentiment wise I used ‘Believe in yourself, like I believe in you’ from the Hero Arts and Honey Bee Stamps collaboration set Stronger Together. This is stamped directly onto the card base, with Hybrid Black Ink, with the help of the MISTI and the rainbow as a guide where to place the sentiment. I also added lots of hearts from the set, these are also stamped up with black ink.

Unfortunately I made a boo-boo with the hearts, so I HAD TO bring out the sequins to cover that up. Had to. There was simply no other option. I added a few… -ish… to the card, these are Sparkling Clear from Pretty Pink Posh, and they are adhered with Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. It’s become my new staple in liquid adhesives arsenal.

So that’s the rainbow card. The next card is done with one of the new sets from Ellen Hutson, it’s release day today! It’s called Pressing Thoughts and it’s illustrated by Brandi Kincaid. It has a coordinating diecut too! YAY!

It’s coloured very simply with some copics in yellows and greens, and a tiny bit of purple on the stamens. The coordinating diecut was used to cut it out, as well as another two layers. These three pieces were adhered together with more of that Nuvo Deluxe adhesive. This is such a clever way to add some interest to clean and simple cards!

It was trimmed down to a mini-slimline size, this one is just a tad bigger than 3”x6” and the scalloped black card base was cut out using the Scallop Frame Slimline Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. I customised the size by running the diecut and the card stock through my diecutting machine twice to get the scalloped frame and the correct size.

The sentiment is from the Pressing Thoughts stamp set, and the ‘thanks’ was stamped directly onto the background and the ‘for everything’ was done on a slim strip of card stock. This was adhered with a little bit of foam tape to make sure it didn’t sag on the sides. And that was it!

Well, that’s it from me for today but I really hope you enjoyed this post and will get a chance to hop along with us over on YouTube! That’s where you need to leave your comments to be in with a chance to win one of the fab prizes. We can not thank the sponsors of this hop enough!

I have also used some compensated affiliate links in this blog post, for your convenience and at no extra cost to you, in case you want to shop! If you shop using my links I get commission directly from the company, and as I mentioned, it doesn’t cost you anything at all. This is a great way to show support for your favorite content creators.

Thank you so much for stopping by, and if you want to get hopping, the full hop list is down below. I’m 100% sure it will blow your mind so don’t miss it!!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Maria Willis

Marie Heiderscheit

Kari

Ardyth

Channin

Jessica

Jen Kray

Carly

Erica (that’s me)

MASSIVE Moving Sale at Concord & 9th! Huge savings galore.

Hi guys!

I’m just popping in quickly today with a reminder about the moving sale at Concord & 9th. There are some insane sales with 40-70% off! Yes! Up to 70% off. Seventy percent! You read that right!

The All The Letters Bundles is included in the sale. I love this alpha diecut set and have used is on the card below.

There is another alpha diecut set, Tall Type, included in the sale and I love that one too. Can you ever have too many alphabet die sets? I think not.

If you want flowers, there are loads of those available too!

If you love diecutting and 3D flowers, you will love these and all three for $22?? What a steal!

One of my fave Turnabout sets is aptly called Crafty, and it’s also included in the sale! Oh, I’ve had so much fun with this one.

Mix it with inks, coloured cardstock or colour the pieces in with your choice of medium. So much fun to be had and a great deal to boot. Win-win!

If you shop the sale using my affiliate links, which are used all throughout this post at no extra cost to you, I get a small commission directly from the company. In this case Concord & 9th.

Any earnings I get from these affiliate links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram. Thank you so much for the support, I really appreciate it and do not take it for granted.

Lots of love and happy crafting (and maybe shopping!) from Erica

Alex Syberia March Release! Copic coloring on vellum.

Hi guys!

Today is release day for Alex Syberia’s March release of digital stamps, and as always, she has some amazing designs for us!

I started out with the Fabulous Floral slim line flowers and printed it on vellum. The upside with having a laser printer is that I can foil the images, which always looks fab! This one I foiled with white Minc foil, using my Minc machine.

To add some colour, I turned it over and used Copics, on the back. When using this technique, you do have to add quite a lot of colours, or strong ones, in order for it to show through the vellum.

When the colouring was done, I gently wrapped the vellum piece over a white slim line card base, and glued down the sides to the back so it wouldn’t show.

To finish this off, I used a discontinued, but loved, word die from Neat & Tangled that says ‘love you’ in a gorgeous font. The paper I used is homemade shimmer paper! You can make your own by smearing Paper Glaze from Picket Fence Studios on card stock, let it dry and voilá!

I cut out another two layers and added these together with liquid glue, before adhering the whole thing to the card. Layering word dies up is such a simple but effective way of taking your card designs up a notch, with little effort. This word die is sold out in a LOT of places, and the only shop I found it actually in stock is Foiled Fox, so if you want it, GRAB IT FAST!!

To celebrate the release the design team are doing an instagram hop, where you can see some fantastic inspiration and hop along for a chance to win a gift voucher to the Alex Syberia shop! I have seen some of the cards, and they are AH-mazing! You are not going to want to miss it.

You can of course use skip straight to Alex’s shop if you already know you are going to want to get some of these for yourself.

Thanks for stopping by today, I hope you enjoyed this post and will enjoy some of these new stamps for yourself.

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

Tonic Studios Stamp Club Compassion & Poppies Blog Hop!

Hi everyone!

Today I’m delighted to be one of the stops on the Tonic Studios Stamp Club release blog hops. This month’s bundle is called Compassion & Poppies, and consists of a stamp set and coordinating diecuts. They will only be sold as a bundle, and are exclusive to Tonic Studios so grab them while you can! Once they are sold out, they are gone!

This is a monthly stamp release, and will be available the last Friday of every month (with exceptions made for holidays) It’s not a club or subscription based program, so there is no commitment or forced buying, it’s simply a small, but fabulous, stamp release.

You can get it both from the UK Tonic Studios shop and the US Tonic Studios shop, but if you want it, make sure to get it fast. Don’t dilly-dally, the last bundle sold out so fast, so better safe than sorry!

There is of course a prize to be won, a blog hop wouldn’t be complete without one, right? One lucky winner will win the entire bundle, as well as a £50/$50 Giftcard to Tonic Studios! How is that for awesome-sauce? Leave a comment on this blog to a chance to win, and the more you hop and comment, the bigger your chance to win. Comments can be made until March 3rd 11.59PM PST/7.59am GST March 4th, and winner will be announced on March 5th!

The entire line-up can be found at the bottom of this post, and you next stop is my talented friend Janette Kausen!

So, full disclosure, my goodies only arrived 24hrs ago, so it has been a bit of a scramble. I only finished one full card but if I manage to make more, I will share them over on my Instagram.

I started by stamping the big flower image with Black Hybrid ink on Neenah paper with my MISTI, as I wanted to do some Copic colouring. I started out with reds, greens and cool greys, but decided to skip out on the greens in favour of colouring the leaves grey for a dramatic look.

A bit of masking here and there protected my flowers, and I heat embossed the two leaves from the stamp set in Platinum from WOW! Embossing powder. It goes so well with the grey on the leaves, and adds that gorgeous shine to the card. I made sure to use my anti-static tool generously before, as the paper was still a bit wet from the colouring.

I used my WOW! heat tool to set the powder. I love this tool, thanks to the dual settings you have so much more control over the heat and that’s always a good thing.

To add some drama to the card, I ink blended some Hickory Smoke and Black Soot around the edges, using my Blender Brushes. This not only adds drama, but also draws the eye in to the star of the show: the poppies.

The final touch was to heat emboss one of the sentiments onto black card stock. I used Platinum again, for a cohesive look, and trimmed it down to a slim banner before adhering it with liquid glue.

Well, that’s it from me for now, and it’s time to hop on. Or get your shop on! I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience. These links do not cost you anything extra at all, however if you use them I get a small commission from the company directly. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram. I am so grateful for the support, and can’t do it without you so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

BLOG HOP LIST: 

Channin Pelletier

Dilay Nacar

Emily Midgett

Erica Andersson Burke

Janette Kausen

Jen Kray

Kelly Taylor

Maria Willis

Mindy Eggen

Seeka

PinkFresh Studios Inks in The House!

Hello, hello!

The ink-oholic Erica here with a very colourful post! I have had the total delight of being sent the entire range of luscious big ink pads from PinkFresh Studios and I HAD to swatch them before doing anything else! Ok, so in all honesty, the first thing I did was dance around like a dizzy emu, whilst clapping like a demented seal and squealing like a happy pig rolling round in mud! Now, that’s a mental image for you, isn’t it?? LOL! Sufficient to say, I was A TAD excited.

Ok, so the swatches are not perfect but, as mentioned, I was a bit excited. And I was still excited while I was stamping them up. I mean, the idea is to see the colours, these are staying in my craft room so I’m not sending these to anyone.

The clever swatching die and stamps are from Waffle Flower. You can find the Swatch Tag Die, Color For Ink Pads and Combo Swatch stamps separate too. These were just perfect for these inks as they come in families of four shades of each colour. You can get the Big Ink Pad Bundle or if you don’t have a huge amount of space in your craft room, they also come in a handy little Mini Cubes Bundle.

For my swatches, I’ve used I cut out loads of tags out of Neenah Solar White #110 card stock, as I wanted the swatches to be sturdy. Using the Mini MISTI, I then stamped up the swatching bit with Detail Black ink from PinkFresh Studio.

The first colour family I did was the yellows: Lemon Whip, Sunshine, Sweet Mustard and Marigold. These also come in handy Mini Cubes, called Rise And Shine.

Next up we have the peachy family: Peach Fuzz, Apricot, Clementine and Persimmon. These also come in handy Mini Cubes, aptly named Indian Summer.

Oooh, these pinks and reds have me all gooey: Coral Reef, Passion Fruit, Berrylicious and Candy Apple. They also come in Mini Cubes, with the perfect name Heartbeat.

Pretty in all the shades of pink: Ballet Slipper, Sparkling Rose, Bubble Gum and Raspberry Bliss. These also come in Mini Cubes, with the magic name Fairy Dust!

The purples are stunning: Soft Lilac, Candy Violet, Lavender and Royal Kiss. Of course, these also come in Mini Cubes and I want you to read this with your very best French accent: Soul Of Provence.

As a blue kind of gal, I’m loving these: Slumber, Blue Jay, Sapphire and Stargazer. Mini Cubes are available as well, with the dreamy name Starry Nights.

I do love all shades of blue but these have me swooning: Sky Blue, Summer Shower, Seaside and Storm. These I could easily have in both big pads and Mini Cubes, Morning Sky, just because I love them.

These dreamy teals are to die for: Ocean Breeze, Aquamarine, Mermaid Cove and Tidal Pond. Of course these gems, called Island Oasis, come in Mini Cubes as well.

Ga-ga for green? No worries, these beauties have you covered: Mint, Meadow, Emerald City and Evergreen. Mini Cubes, too, of course, called Garden Stroll.

More of a spring green kind of person? Don’t feel left out, as these will surely give you your green fix: Fresh Pear, Grassy Knoll, Key Lime and Olive. Do KNOLL worry, these come in Mini Cubes too, Over The Hill.

Looking for natural neutrals? Warm Buff, Doe, Gathered Twigs and Espresso takes card of that. In Mini Cubes too, with the delicious name Wild Truffles.

No collection is complete without some steely greys, right? Misty Coast, Rocky Slope, Metropolis and Licorice cover all your bases. In big pads and Mini Cubes, naturally, with the funky name Urban Raincoat.

With all the swatches done, I added them to a ring binder to keep them all in one place. I have already consulted them to make a card, actually. Thanks to the swatches it was super easy to pick out some bright and happy colours for the Pop-Out Rainbow stamp.

With the help of the Mini MISTI, this card took less than 10 minutes to make. SO easy, and cheerful!

I finished it off with a sentiment from the Floral Notes stamp set, stamped up with Black Detail ink. That sentiment was just perfect for a rainbow card! And perhaps a sequin… or ten. Eh, I might have gone a little bit overboard but hey, it works.

Well, with that, I’m all done for today but I do have an unboxing (I bought a LOT of stuff) and ink swatching video over on my YouTube channel as well, if you want to see the swatching in action.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, PinkFresh very generously sent me the entire range of inks to play with but I purchased a huge amount of stuff from them as well. Including that adorable Pop-Out Rainbow stamp, which I have had my eye on for so long! I want to reassure you that I will only ever create with stuff I love and that inspires me. I don’t know about you, but I can’t work with stuff that I don’t like, it just dries up my mojo.

I have used some compensated affiliate links to (mostly) PinkFresh Studios in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. Any earnings I get from these affiliate links go straight back into stamps… erm… (if The Man reads this, that was an auto-correct! I swear, baby!!) the running of my blog, YouTube channel and Instagram. Thank you so much if you choose to support me by using these links, I really appreciate the support and encouragement!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica

You can find me on various social media platforms if you want to see more of my work

My blog (that’s right here)

Instagram

My YouTube channel

CaCaCraft on Facebook

Christmas Card Collaboration with Courtney Kroeber

Ho, ho, ho, my merry peeps!

Today’s post is the corresponding blog post for a YouTube video that’s up on my channel today. I’m collaborating with Courtney Kroeber for her 25 Days Of Christmas Cards series and we decided on Copic coloring for our cards.

Now, this might come as a shock as colouring is basically the theme of this card, but I have not used a single stamp set here!! Not a one! Say whaaaaat? I decided to use the Strings Of Lights diecuts from Lawn Fawn and cut out lots of the baubles out of Copic friendly card stock, and these I have coloured.

To get these looking as lifelike as possible, I have used quite a few markers on each one. Going from dark at the edges and lighter and lighter towards the middle.

The screw tops I had to play around with several tries before I was happy with the look. I thought blending the colours would give the most realistic look, but I was so wrong! In the end, what I liked best was using C4 with light flicks, and then going in with C5 to add depth and the illusion of the curve.

With a huge selection of baubles coloured, it was time to think about the actual card base. I had an idea in my head, and went about trying to make it come to life but man… it was a bit more trouble than I thought! The idea was to use the Take A Bough Encore dies from Concord & 9th and create a Christmas tree look. Sounds cool, right? Whilst I got there in the end, it ended up being a very heavy card! This is not one to be sent in the mail, unless you are happy to pay a lot extra for postage.

First of all I cut out a slim line panel using the Slim Line Diecutting System from Picket Fence Studios. Using this as a guide, I then absolutely COVERED it with the Take A Bough Encore pieces. These, and the background panel, are all cut out of Evergreen card stock, from Concord & 9th. When I had a good coverage around the edges, I covered them with a strip of Press’n’Seal and picked them all up. To make sure all of them would stick to the background panel I used Pritt-stick glue. Yep, very old school indeed!

When the edges glued down, I just had to cover the middle with the larger boughs. To make sure the tree looks lifelike, I didn’t cover the backs of the bough dies with glue, only the middle part.

With my “tree” done, I could start the decorating with the baubles! I cut out lots of extra string from the diecut set and then got puzzling. What I realised here though, is that I should have coloured up more of the smaller baubles, instead of going to town with the bigger ones. Admittedly they were easier to colour.

As it’s pretty obvious what occasion this card is for, I didn’t add a sentiment to the front of it. The Man actually said ‘Nobody is going to look at that and think Happy Easter’, lol!

Well, that’s it from me but I hope you get a chance to hop on over to my YouTube channel to watch the video, and then drop by Courtney’s channel to see what she made.

I have used some compensated affiliate links in this blog post, at no extra cost to you, for your convenience. Thank you so much if you shop using these links, I really appreciate the support!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica