Pinkfresh Studio December 2022 Stamp, Die, Stencil, and Hot Foil Release

Hi and welcome back to my blog for the ultimate Pinkfresh Studio release of 2022!

This post is part of a blog hop, so if you came here from the one and only Emily Midgett you are in the right spot, and the next stop is the marvellous Heather Hoffman! You can also see the entire lineup via this InLinkz link, and in the Pinkfresh Studio blog post.

It wouldn’t be a celebration without some amazing giveaways, and it couldn’t be easier to join in! To be in with the chance to win the ENTIRE RELEASE make sure to comment on the Pinkfresh Studio release blog post, and for another chance, comment on the Pinkfresh Studio Youtube release video.

There are also TEN $25 gift cards up for grabs, and the winners for these will be drawn from the comments from the blog hop stops. So basically the more you hop and comment, the bigger your chance of winning! And who wouldn’t love to win some spending money in the Pinkfresh Studio shop??

The winners will be announced on the Pinkfresh Giveaway winner page, on the 27th of December, and make sure you check that page and claim your prize within 2 weeks. Now with all that out of the way, let’s get to my two little cards.

I know… last month I only had one card, and this month I only have two. I’m still struggling with the after-effects of my bad bout of Covid, and then having to move house before I was even close to recovered? To say I’ve been pushed to my limit isn’t far off. Imagine having to oversee a house being packed up, deep cleaned and inspected before moving out, then doing a long drive to the new house, the next day was move-in day and it was FULL SPEED ahead all day, all while being very sick and not feeling with it? I was pretty much knocked out and the next two days was spent in a foggy haze of boxes everywhere, not being able to find anything, being in pain and feeling extra awful… Even now, a month on, I am still not even close to being 100% and honestly, the fact I haven’t completely and utterly lost my mind in this process? It is pushing this one up there with some of my top achievements ever. Ever.

Now that I have gotten all my ‘woe is me’ out of the way, let’s get to the card making. For my first card I have indulged my love of hot foiling by using the lovely new Detailed Leaf and Happy Birthday pieces. The Detailed Leaf suite has a stamp, a coordinating diecut, layering stencils and a hot foil plate.

I started out by foiling the Detailed Leaf with Polished Brass foil, it comes from the Essential Metallics Variety Pack from Spellbinders, which can be found in the Pinkfresh shop now! Yay!

Let’s talk about this leaf. It is actually so stunning on it’s own, I decided to not use the coordinating layering stencils for this card, and instead went the Solid Hot Foil Plate route and foiled the negative piece as well. Because why not?

I created a white-on-white background for these pieces, to give some interest but not take away any attention from the gorgeous leaves themselves. One of my favorite diecuts for this sort of look is the Simply Diamonds one. I find it versatile and elegant.

Another fab addition to the Pinkfresh range is now word hot foil AND diecuts, oh yes! So they will come in a pack together, the hot foil plate in the gold colour and the diecut in the silver colour. Genius! And who doesn’t need a good Happy Birthday sentiment, right?

For this card I hot foiled the Happy Birthday in Rainbow foil! It looks fabulous. It really does. Much better in real life than in most of the pictures, naturally. I also layered it up with a couple of diecut pieces, to raise it up a bit. The leaves are trimmed and tucked behind the sentiment.

Not that I ever need an excuse, but I finished off the card with lots of Glacier jewels. If you can’t go nuts with bling-a-ling for birthdays, when can you?

So that’s card No1, now onto card No2!

Here I used the Detailed Leaf hot foil again, but added some colour to it with the layering stencils. In a rainbow, of course. As well as another negative foiled leaf.

On this card, I used the negatives from the Simply Diamonds cover plate too, to keep waste to a minimum. Plus it adds a fab element to a background, so win-win. The negative bits didn’t go on perfectly straight, try crafting with a cotton candy brain and cold hands. It’s not easy, nope!

To cover up the wonkiness, I used another new hot foil addition: The Nested Rectangles, and they come with coordinating diecuts too, so you can cut them out and use as frames for your images.

Again, I used the Polished Brass foil for these, to coordinate with the leaves.

I used a sentiment from the Detailed Leaf stamp set, which I heat embossed in gold, to finish off the card. It’s layered up with another two pieces, that I cut out with the coordinating diecut. A tiny… small-ish.. perhaps generous in someone else’s eyes, smattering of Sparkling Champagne pearls were the finishing touch for this card.

With that, I’m done for today. I must mention that I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, for your convenience, at no extra cost to you. If you shop using these links, I might get a small commission from the company directly, and it doesn’t ever cost you a penny extra. Thank you so much if you chose to support me by shopping with links, I really appreciate the support and encouragement.

The next stop on the hop is the amazing Heather!

Lots of love and happy crafting from Erica!

Crafty Meraki Shimmer release!!

OOOOOH, so much sparkle happening today! This is my second post of the day, as it’s also release day from Crafty Meraki. After months of planning and testing, there is now hot foil plates available!!

We are celebrating with a YouTube hop, so make sure you head on over to my YouTube channel to hop along. There is some insane inspiration along the way, and it wouldn’t be a celebration without a giveaway. This is one prize you are not going to want to miss: you can win a Glimmer Hot Foil System!!!

I’m not going to keep you for much longer, as all the action is over on YouTube, but I hope you will join us there! However, if you can’t wait to grab some of these fab products for yourself, you can head on over to Crafty Meraki via this link and use the code ERICA10 at checkout for 10% off your order!

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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Pinkfresh October Challenge + Hot Foil + Ink Blending + Heat Embossing

Hi everyone, and welcome back!

I’m popping in today with a quick card I made with mostly “leftovers” from previous crafting sessions, for the Pinkfresh Studio new monthly challenge. Each month there is a new theme and colour scheme, and this month it’s Fall/Fall Holidays and this is the inspiration graphic.

My interpretation is more based on the colour scheme than the theme, but that’s ok. If you think you have to be super literal with your interpretation, don’t worry. That’s not the point at all. The point is to get your creativity humming and going! Don’t forget to upload your project to the InLinkz album before Nov 2nd, for your chance to win a $50 gift card to Pinkfresh Studios!

While I was preparing to be on the Craft Hour last month, I foiled so many of the Thankful for Friends image. It’s slightly addicting, especially when you have zero willpower like I do.. I really need to get a grip with using up everything I prep and make while on a roll, so this card was an effort to do just that.

Below you can see some of the cards I ended up finishing after the Craft Hour.

I also had an Thankful For Friends image heatembossed, so I thought I’d use that with the coordinating Layering Stencils. That way I could use up one more piece but still add colour to it. Using the stencils I have ink blended a bit of Misty Coast and Rocky Slope with blender brushes, over the stem and for the flowers themselves I used only Tidal Pond. This soft look is achieved by picking up the ink from the lid, where I tap off excess ink and get it covering the brush evenly, rather than from the ink pad directly. It’s one of my better ideas for sure!

The last layer of the stencil I did use, but not with more inks, but rather Nuvo Glimmer Paste in Moonstone. I think I did learn something with this though. You see, I did this before cutting it out, which flattened the Glimmer Paste a little. The better way to do it would be to cut it out first, and then add that afterwards. You can use a little bit of washi tape to hold the image in place.

When I was happy with the ink blending and glitz (and that had dried), I used the coordinating diecut and cut it out. Previously, I had cut out a ton of extra pieces for layering up, and I used one of these extra pieces to add some height. I also used one of the Hot Foiled images. This one is done with Matte Gold on Stormcloud card stock.

These pieces I set aside while I decided on the background. I also had a load of Abstract Triangle Hot Foiled panels, and I grabbed one of these. It turned out this is Matte Gold too, so that coordinated perfectly. It did need a little something though, so I added a light touch of Apricot and Clementine ink around the edges. It really made the gold foiling pop even more! The middle was left white so that the flowers would look like they glowed, sort of.

The final thing to do was to heat emboss one of the sentiments from the Thankful For Friends set, in Rich Gold embossing powder from WOW! Embossing powder. This was adhered with a little bit of foam tap and with that the card was done!

So, there is a lot going on with this card, but despite the colours not being my first colour combo choice, I do think it works.

Ok, now it’s your turn. Make a card with the challenge graphic as inspiration and upload it to the album for your chance to win $50 gift card to the Pinkfresh Studios shop!

I have used some compensated affiliate links in this post, at no extra cost to you whatsoever. Any earnings I get from these links go directly back into the crafting shenanigans so thank you so much for the support. I really appreciate it!

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

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