Happy Sunday everyone,

today I'm back again for Day 2 of the Skipping Stones Design Grand Reopening/New Release Blog Hop. You can see my card for Day 1 here. There are already lots of stamps in the Skipping Stones Design Stamp Store. Heather is offering free shipping to EVERYONE to celebrate - enter 'freeship' at checkout. She also released two brand-new Christmas stamp sets: Joy and Christmas Labels.

So here is my very first Christmas card for this year ;-)

At first I masked off a rectangle and blended a Light Aqua Dye Ink with a fresh Lime Green. Then I white heat embossed this lovely christmas tree from the Joy stamp set. I embellished the tree with rhinestones. The «Merry Christmas» is a combo of a silver heat embossed sentiment from the Christmas Labels stamp set and a silver foil die-cut (SSS die).

Hope you like my Christmas card in non-traditional colors!

Now hop over to Lee Ann to see her beautiful creation.

We hope you enjoy all the amazing design team projects along this Blog Hop and of course their is a prize up for grabs! You can win a $25 credit to the SSD store. So make sure you leave a comment at each stop. Commenting will be left open until Saturday, August 8th and the winner will be announced on Monday, August 10th!

If you get lost during the hop, here is the complete line-up:

Skipping Stones Design

Coralynn

Wanda

Teresa

Anja —> that's me ;-)

Lee Ann

Giovana

Martha

Chelsea

Thank you so much for stopping by! Make sure to check back because we will start a new SSD Challenge soon.

Winner Announcement Winnie & Walter Gift Card Giveaway

I'm popping in again to announce the winner of the Winnie & Walter $30 Gift Card Giveaway which was randomly drawn from all the comments on my Leading Lady posts.

Congrats, TracyM #6773! You are the lucky one! I've emailed you ;-)

Skipping Stones Design Grand Reopening/New Release Blog Hop – Day 1

Hi everyone,

today I have a special post for you! A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the brand-new design team of a returning stamp company located in the US – Skipping Stones Design. I'm glad to join them and we start with a fun Blog Hop. 

Welcome to the Skipping Stones Design Grand Reopening/New Release Blog Hop. Skipping Stones Design has been around since 2005 but unofficially closed down for a few years while the owner Heather Timmins took some time off to graduate from school and she finally did! Congratulations Heather! So now she's back with a new design team, stamps and more …

Heather is offering free shipping to EVERYONE to celebrate - enter 'freeship' at checkout.

We hope you enjoy all the amazing design team projects along this Blog Hop and of course their is a prize up for grabs! You can win a $25 credit to the SSD store. So make sure you leave a comment at each stop. Commenting will be left open until Saturday, August 8th and the winner will be announced on Monday, August 10th!

Now here is the card I created:

It's no secret that I simply love butterflies *giggle*, so I stamped my whole background with a solid stamp from the Breathtaking Butterflies set. I used Altenew and Simon Says Stamp Dye Inks in a pastel color palette and my MISTI to get these crisp impressions. The sentiment is from the Heartsong stamp set and I heat embossed it in white and cut a little banner. I put some silver thread behind it and adhered it with foam tape. For the edges of my panel I used one of the «Stitched Borders» from Lawn Fawn.

Now everyone let's start hopping and we hope you enjoy all the creations along the way and should you get lost, below is the complete line-up:

Skipping Stones Design

Coralynn

Wanda

Teresa

Anja —> that's me ;-)

Lee Ann

Giovana

Martha

Chelsea

Thank you so much for stopping by and happy hopping! See you tomorrow for Day 2 of the Blog Hop!

DT Make it Crafty CAS Inspiration | Bright Side of Life

Hi everyone,

today I'm over at the Make it Crafty Store Blog to share another Clean & Simple inspiration card with you.

Once again I used one of the fabulous Chipboard Quote Blocks. This time I've chosen Bright Side of Life – I really love this text from a Monty Python movie song ;-)

Of course I had to make a happy and bright card (there is no stamping involved at all):

I already had a left-over watercolored piece of cardstock on my desk which was created by blending three Distress Inks («Picked Raspberry», «Peacock Feathers» and «Cracked Pistachio») together. It was just perfect to put it behind the chipboard quote block which I left as is. I also adhered a bit of yellow cardstock behind the sun – with my Copics I added some shading.

To mimic some sunshine and clouds, I used a Lifestyle Crafts sunburst embossing folder and a Mama Elephant stitched cloud border die. I also sponged some inks on the sunrays and clouds to give them dimension.

For more shine I added some fine sparkle to the sunrays using a ZIG Wink of Stella Glitter Brush Pen in Clear. You can see it a bit better on this photo:

I popped up the chipboard and the front cloud with foam tape and adhered everything to a Kraft card base.

Hope you liked my bright little card. Thank you so much for stopping by!

Winnie & Walter July Leading Lady | Take 4

Hi everyone,

Can't believe how fast time flies! I'm sentimental today because my time as Winnie & Walter's Leading Lady for July now comes to an end :-( I really had a blast to create and share all these projects here and I'm truly honored and thankful for this wonderful chance! Thank you so much for all your lovely comments and the positive feedback! It really means so much to me!

For my last turn I will do some kind of a Wrap-Up post by incorporating the techniques I've shown you in my last three performances. I will combine these topics with my love for floral stamps and dies which of course can be found in the Winnie & Walter store.

Ready for today's Flower Power?

Embossing with a die and watercolored die-cuts

For my first card I once again used the incredible Cover Model: Multifaceted Cutaway die. But this time I did some fun Dry Embossing with it. This means I've run it through my die-cutting machine using a silicone mat so the parts won't be cut but pressed into the paper. To create this beautiful flower I did some free Watercoloring with Distress Inks and die-cut the solid parts with the In Bloom: Maggie's Roses Cutaways. After that I also die-cut the outlines from white cardstock and glued them on top. I really love how this turned out! For a bit of dimension I popped up the rose with foam tape. The sentiment is from The Big, the Bold and Friends stamp set. I white heat embossed it on vellum and did some fussy cutting. To embellish my card I adhered a couple of clear and pink sequins.

Stenciled Golden Stripes and Heat Embossed Flowers

Here I combined a striped background with white heat embossed floral images. I generously sponged «Delicata Golden Glitz» Pigment Ink from Tsukineko through the Scenery: Classic Diagonal Creative Screenings stencil. This looks great on dark cardstock. I arranged some flowers from the In Bloom: Addie's Garden stamp set and heat embossed them in white. The sentiment is from The Party stamp set.

Stamped Floral Background

I like to create my own backgrounds with several stamps especially flowers. For this card I used the images from two sets: Joni Andaya's gorgeous In Bloom: Lola's Bouquet and The Party. I tried a new color combo with my Dye Inks which are great for crisp impressions. I die-cut a scalloped rectangle from vellum with one of the Essentials: Audrey Cutaways dies. The sentiment from The Big, the Bold and You was heat embossed with «Liquid Platinum» by Ranger. I glued the vellum on my stamped floral background. To hide the few dots of adhesive I added a couple of pearls and sequins.


For my last two cards I once again used the pretty In Bloom: Addie's Garden stamp set to show you its versatility. These floral images can look really elegant and soft by watercoloring them but also simple and modern when only using the outline on a bold watercolor background.

Watercolor Blooms

At first I white heat embossed the flowers and leaves on watercolor cardstock. I did some masking to build my cluster. Then I colored it with Distress Inks. The light blue «glow» was made with one of the new-to-me ZIG Clean Color Real Brush Pens which are totally in trend right now. I die-cut the word «hugs» (The Big, the Bold and Friends Cutaways) four times from white cardstock and stacked them together. Finally I added some clear sequins.

Gerbera on a bright watercolor background

I made this watercolor background with my Distress Inks by simply letting them blend with the help of water. I love how bright and cheery these inks are! I only used three colors – through blending, the pink and the turquoise created this gorgeous blue and purple tones. After letting this dry completely I heat embossed the gerbera and the sentiment from The Party in white. To finish my simple card design I matted the watercolor piece on black cardstock for a better contrast and added two white enamel dots.


Now it's time for me to leave the Leading Lady stage *sniff*. I so enjoyed this incredible experience! I'm sad writing these last couple of lines but also very grateful for this awesome opportunity!

Don't forget to comment on the Leading Lady posts on my personal blog for your chance to win a $30 gift card to the Winnie & Walter store. I will draw a random winner by the end of the month.

Thanks to Julie & Shay for having me! I really appreciate your support and generosity!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

MFT Summer School 2 | Lesson #10 | Monochromatic

Hello peeps,

Before the My Favorite Things Summer School Session 2 comes to an end, I quickly created another card to join the fun ;o) Unfortuately, I didn't have the time to master all the inspiring lessons.

In Lesson #10 it's all about the Color Theory: Monochromatic.

And here is the card I made:

I really love this beautiful My Favorite Things «Roses All Over Background» stamp. I heat embossed it in white and sponged some ink in a darker hue than the cardstock. I die-cut a circle window and adhered my panel with foam tape. The sentiment is from the MFT «True Friends» stamp set and also white heat embossed. Finally I added two hearts die-cut from fun foam.

I think this card design would work perfectly for a Wedding, too. Will have to keep that in mind for the next time.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

MFT Summer School 2 | Lesson #6 | Gallon/Quart/Pint

Good morning everyone,

I finally managed to make a card for My Favorite Things Summer School. Session 2 focuses on color theories.

The first lesson explained the concept of using the color theory of Gallon/Quart/Pint. I'm not quite sure if I followed this rule correctly, but I had a blast stamping all these pretty flowers and leaves.

I combined three My Favorite Things stamp sets: «Modern Blooms», «Desert Bouquet» and the sentiment is from the «Spring Tulips» set. For my stamping I used the MFT Dye Inks «Peach Bellini», «Coral Crush», «Persimmon» and «Grout Gray». I really love this color combo!

I kept the design pretty simple and created two angled panels which are popped up with foam tape. To make the sentiment stand out a bit more I stamped it in Versafine «Onyx Black».

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a sunny day!