Maya Road Blog Hop (& Giveaway)

Hi everyone! Ready for the weekend? I know I am!

The Maya Road Design Team is having a blog hop! We're each sharing projects with new CHA products (including their awesome dies!). Here's the order of the hop:

Maya Road DT Blog

Katrina Hunt

Stacy Koo

Jess Mutty

Jocelyn Olson <--You are here.

Melody Rupple

Julia Stainton

Yasmin Tolche

Yvonne Yam

Here's a card I made for CHA that I thought worked for Easter or as an encouragement card:

Other than the paper, all of the products are from Maya Road. :) I die-cut the pretty pray sentiment from the Peace and Pray Script die, and blended ink on the bottom portion. On the top of the card, I added a Resin Mini Mum and a Small Vintage Paper Flower.

The focal point is a little bird nest. I am in love with the Resin Nesting Bird (Turquoise Sea), and I gave her a nest of the Wood Ribbon Bobbins and a Tulle Mini Bloom (Sunny Yellow). For the leaf, I liquid gilded a Big Leaf Die with a rose gold gilding. I finished the cluster with more Small Vintage Paper Flowers (Pink).

Here's a close-up:

Giveaway! Maya Road will be giving away one of the Maya Road Sweet Nothings Card Kits! Here are the details:

• A winner will be chosen randomly from all the comments on all the blogs in the hop. 
• You have until 9 am EST Tuesday March 8^th to leave comments. 
• Winner will be announced on the Maya Road Design Team Blog  Thursday March 10^th.  
• Please leave only one comment per blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Next is the fabulous Melody!

Paper Smooches Anniversary Hop Winner and Spring Cards

Hi everyone! Thank you for all of the really sweet and funny comments on the Paper Smooches 5th Anniversary Blog Hop card (HERE)!! You all are awesome!

Before I get to the winner of the hop, I thought I would share a few Paper Smooches spring cards I made last year (but never posted).

First up, an Easter tag:

I attached these tags to my kids' baskets. To make the tags, I used Paper Smooches' Easter Egg Dies (for the egg and bow), Sassy Letters Dies, and Toppers Dies.

Next, a spring greeting:

I used Paper Smooches' Luminous Spring stamps and Butterfly Duet Dies. The papers are (old) American Crafts' Dear Lizzy....it was a great way to use scraps and older papers!

Lastly, a welcome card:

I used Paper Smooches' We Adore You stamps, the We Adore You Icon dies, The Welcome Wagon stamps, and Welcome Die. The window was made using the negative space of the Duo Die 2. I used a welcome sentiment, but a Mother's Day sentiment would work well with these stamps, too.

***
Now for the winner of the choice of two Paper Smooches stamp sets and three dies is:

Dasa

Congrats!! Please send me your e-mail address (see Contact Me above), and I'll pass it on to Kim at Paper Smooches. She'll ship the prize from PS HQ. :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Guesting at My Favorite Things

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday! I have a sneak....

I am absolutely thrilled to be guesting over on the My Favorite Things blog today! :) I made a trio of gift wraps and a card using the new Lisa Johnson Designs stamps and dies. If you have a chance, please check it out HERE. Thank you!!

Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Kites Home Decor

Hi everyone! Happy Monday!

I'm up on the Maya Road blog today with a home decor project.

I used a lot of altered Maya Road embellishments and American Crafts Serendipity papers to make kites. Now how springy is that? :) I hope you'll swing by the Maya Road blog and check it out!

I also wanted to announce the winner of the $30 gift certificate to Altenew for the Altenew Die Release Blog Hop. Congratulations to:

Jamie Vanskiver

Jamie, I don't see an e-mail for you, so please e-mail me at redballooncards at yahoo dot com and I'll pass your information on to Altenew. Thank you so much for all of the really sweet comments!

Have a great day!

March Paper Smooches DT Blog Hop

Hi everyone!

It's Pep Rally week and we are here today to share a sampling of the NEW Paper Smooches April release with you! FOUR new stamps and EIGHT new dies will be available to purchase on March 31st at 8:00pm PT. Once our release goes live, you will find our new products HERE.

To add extra fun to our blog hop...we are offering up a prize! The prize - a $25 gift code to choose what you like at the PS online store. Here are the details:

• FOUR winners will be chosen at random from any of the design team blogs and the PS Blog to win the $25 prize. 
• Just leave a comment on any of the design team blogs listed above or the PS blog for your chance to win (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify, but it increases your chances). 
• Deadline: You have until midnight PT on Sunday, March 29th to leave a comment. 
• Please check the Paper Smooches blog on Tuesday, March 31st to see if you are one of the FOUR lucky winners. 

Here's the order of the hop:

Ashley Marcu
Emily Leiphart
JJ Bolton
Jocelyn Olson <--You are here
Kalyn Kepner
Kay Miller
Laura Bassen
Laurie Schmidlin
Michele Boyer
Pamela Ho
Teri Anderson

To increase your chance of winning:

• Tell us that you Facebooked about our blog hop (leave another comment) 
• Tell us that you Tweeted about the hop (leave another comment) 
• Tell us that you posted on your blog about our blog hop (leave another comment) 

Here's how I used the Ruffle Pleats die:

The new Ruffle Pleats die is so much fun! The die has score lines, which makes it easier to create box pleats.  Plus, if you want a longer row of pleats, you can use partial die-cutting and create a strip for a layout or packaging.

I took step-out photos of the process below:

1. I die-cut a piece of vellum (you can see the score lines) and folded the lines to create box pleats. I used a shim for die-cutting the vellum to get deeper score lines. 
2. I cut another piece of vellum and a piece of patterned paper. 
3. The vellum were temporarily held with vellum tape and then stitched in an arc to the paper. The arc fans out the pleats, although you could stitch them straight. Also, you don't have to stitch these, but if you don't I would suggest using a strong adhesive if you're going to "ruffle" the pleats.
4. For the patterned paper, I stitched through the center and loosened the pleats. Both types of stitching give a different look. :) 

I also used the Hello Words die. To finish the card, I hand-cut some American Crafts patterned papers for layering. The papers are so old, they look new again. Ha!

Here's a close-up:

Thanks for stopping by! Next up is my sweet and very talented friend Kalyn!

Supplies

Dies: (Ruffle Pleats die; sentiment from Hello Words die) Paper Smooches

Cardstock: (White Linen) Ellen Hutson; (vellum) My Favorite Things

Patterned papers: (Shoreline) American Crafts
Ink: (Taxi, Shine mists) Studio Calico

A Vitamix Would Have Been Easier

Hi everyone! Happy Friday!

Just a quick post to share some valentines I made for my daughter's class.

So back in December (for the January Paper Smooches release), I stamped, Copic colored, and die-cut about 35 fruits and vegetables using the Paper Smooches Fruitastic and Vegtastic stamps and Fruitastic Icons and Vegtastic Icons dies. Thankfully, I find coloring pretty relaxing. :)

I used a mix of Paper Smooches sentiments, from the Fruitastic, Vegtastic, and Woofers and Tweeters sets. For the background papers, I used the Scalloped Circle die.

Here's a close-up of my favorite--the carrot. Hee hee.

My daughter used them for her valentines, but these cards would work year-round--I kept a few for me to use. ;)

Tomorrow, I'll share the valentines I made for my son's class.

Have a great day!

Supplies
Stamps: (carrot, peas, sentiments from Vegtastic; strawberries, peach, orange, sentiments from Fruitastic; "I dig you" sentiment from Woofers and Tweeters) Paper Smooches
Dies: (vegetables from Vegtastic Icons; fruit from Fruitastic Icons; Scalloped Circle) Paper Smooches
Cardstock: (Doll Pink, Cotton Candy) Simon Says Stamp, (white) Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper: (Shimelle) American Crafts; (Love Notes) Crate Paper
Ink: (Melon Mambo) Stampin' Up; (Tuxedo Black) Memento
Copic markers

Flowers and Flowers (and Winners!)

Hi everyone! I'm sorry for dropping off the planet for a few weeks. I've been in the middle of writing a grant for a state that has been pretty all-consuming.

I thought I would share some Paper Smooches projects, and the Season's Givings winners are below. :)

First up, a rose card set:

This card required *a lot* of die-cutting. ;) But once I made 17 passes through the die-cutter, I had enough pieces to make more than one card set and the process moved quickly. This technique was a great way to use up scraps of patterned paper.

I used the gorgeous Paper Smooches Roses Dies and in-laid patterned paper die-cuts--mostly American Crafts papers. For the sentiments, I stamped four different sentiments from the Uplifters set.

Here's a close-up:

I packaged the set of four cards for my mother-in-law. For the tag, I used the Paper Smooches Gift Tags 2 die, the Tiny Hearts Die [Aren't those hearts cute? They're only $1.99!], and one of the leaves from the Roses Dies. The sentiment is from Group Hugs.

Next up, I have a second floral card:

The roses are from the Paper Smooches Lovely Thoughts stamp set. I did some two-step stamping and added a bit of shading using Copics (although if I redid the card, I would have used colored pencils).

See the cool background? It's embossed using the Retro Arrow die. Here's a close-up:

Want to hear the winners of the Season's Givings blog hop?

[Drumroll....] The winners are:

Prize 1: Rachel

Prize 2: Shona Chambers

Yeah Rachel and Shona! Please drop me an e-mail at my contact information (the tab on the header). Thanks to everyone for your very sweet comments. You all are so nice!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great day! :)

Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Special Thanks Blog Hop

Hi everyone! I have a special (but sad) post today.

Today, 200+ people are hopping to say thanks to the staff at Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking Magazine. If you're hopping along, you should be coming from Susie's blog.

For those who don't know, Paper Crafts will have its last issue in February 2015. Since the announcement, I've thought about what to say. Ultimately, it comes down to thank you. Thank you for being such an influence on the papercrafting community. Thank you for your hard work and the love you poured into issues. Thank you for being awesome people who made people smile every day.

Kerri does awesome "What I've learned from..." posts on Paper Crafts Connections. I did a little reflecting on what I've learned from Paper Crafts & Scrapbooking over the past several years:

1. Go for it.  'Nuff said.
2. It's good to try new techniques. It's hard to fall into a rut when you have calls pushing you to try using hardware or string art or acrylics. 
3. What not to wear. I really should say what is "in" to wear. PC&S has always been cutting edge on spotting trends, and reading the issues/calls made me feel almost cool. 
4. Freestyle/collage is a real life style. I want to put seven unrelated embellishments on a card? That's okay! 
5. Barbie shoes don't make great stamps. Yes, I've tried that. And celery. And corn. My husband thought I was completely nuts when I told him I had to go to the grocery store for a call. Believe me, I would never have tried those techniques if it hadn't been for PC&S, but trying something new is good. :)
6. Gallon, quart, and pint is more than just for paint. The Card Design Handbook? Life changing. 
7. It's more than a magazine. The editors and staff, the blogs, the contests, the challenges--it's such a sense of community. These folks are social media gurus!
8. They are teachers. When I had a DT end, Susan and Jennifer took the time to give me some great advice. They taught me a lot about myself. 
9. Rocky Road is good. The PC&S editors were very supportive of different styles, different supplies, and different techniques. I dug that (like I dig Rocky Road ice cream). 
10. Crafty friends are good friends. I've met fabulous friends through PC&S, and I know I'm not the only one. :)

Thank you, Jennifer, Susan, Stacy, Kerri, Holly, Matt, Melinda, and (honorary) Cath for all that you have done.

I also wanted to share a card:

I used the pretty new Amy Tangerine Stitched collection to make a very scrappy card. Here's a close-up:

Lastly, I wanted to link up to the PC&S Farewell Slideshow. (Awww....)

Thanks for stopping by. Next up in the hop is Chaitali!

That's Fang-Tastic!

Hi everyone! Happy last-day-of-September!

I'm up on the Neat & Tangled blog today. Here's a sneak peek:

I used the new Creepy Cute and Creepy Cute Shadows and Sentiments sets. If you have a chance, please check it out on the Neat & Tangled blog. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Neat & Tangled Release Day 1

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend!

It's release week at Neat & Tangled! To kick things off, we're sharing projects using the Creepy Cute, Creepy Cute Shadows and Sentiments, Creepy Cute Dies, and Spooktacular Sequins. Danielle is sharing pictures of the products on the Neat & Tangled blog.

Here's how I used the sets:

Aren't those little guys adorable? I masked and added the bow on the ghost. I realized after I took the picture that I used my "draft" ghost instead of the final one. Oops! I really need reading glasses. 

I added the face to the candy corn--isn't he the cutest? The ghost and candy corn are from the Creepy Cute, and the sentiment and spider are from the Creepy Cute Shadows and Sentiments. 

After I had all of the elements on the AC Haunted Hollow paper, I felt like it needed something more. I flipped through my pins and saw THIS gorgeous card by Rahel Menig. I *loved* the glitter edges and had to try it. I also added a few drops of a metallic mist. Here's the card in the light:

There's a giveaway! Comment on the Neat & Tangled blog to win the Creepy Cute and Creepy Cute Shadows and Sentiments sets.

Thanks for stopping by!


Supplies
Stamps: (ghost, bow, candy corn, smile from Creepy Cute; (sentiment, banner, spider from Creepy Cute Shadows and Sentiments) Neat & Tangled
Cardstock: (Neenah 110lb) 
Patterned paper: (Haunted Hollow) Amercian Crafts
Ink: (Tuxedo Black) Tsukineko; (Antique Silver mist) Maya Mist; (Opaque White Mister Huey's) Studio Calico
Copics
Embellishments: (Spooktacular sequins) Neat & Tangled; (doily) craft supply; (Pumice Distress Glitter) Tim Holtz

Neat & Tangled June Blog Hop

Hi everyone! I hope you're having an awesome weekend!

Some of the Neat & Tangled designers and guests are having a blog hop to showcase the Photo Booth and Sunday School Songs sets. If you're hopping along, you should be coming from my friend Miriam's blog.

I made a card using the new Photo Booth stamps:

I was going to use the photo strips, but when I was playing around with the stamps, I realized the end boxes looked like Polaroids. So, I stamped then ends in the six colors and added little doo-dads to each box. The cute party hat and sentiments come from the Photo Booth set--this set has a great variety of sentiments.

When I was done with the boxes, I stitched them (with a few Neat and Tangled sequins) to some digital Paislee Press paper. Here's a close-up:




Since it's a hop, there are some prizes! :) Two winners will be chosen from all of the hop comments, and the winners will have their choice of Photo Booth or Sunday School Songs. The winners will be announced on the Neat & Tangled blog on Saturday, July 5th.

Here's the full order of the hop:

Danielle Walls (Neat and Tangled)

Julie Ebersole

Miriam Prantner

Jocelyn Olson <--You are here.

Anna Kossakovskaya

Heather Campbell

Laurie Willison

Virginia Lu

Savannah O'Gwynn

Your next stop is the fabulous Anna! Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies

Cardstock: (white) PTI

Patterned paper: (digital stripe paper from From Where I Stand) Paislee Press; (pink ombre) Alison Kreft for Echo Park; (yellow from #Summer) American Crafts

Stamps: (Photo Booth) Neat & Tangled

Ink: (Versafine Onyx Black) Tsukineko; (Strawberry, Lake, Peach, Pink Lemonade, Grass) Fresh Ink; (yellow) Mama Elephant

Embellishments: (gold, Crystal Clear, Peach sequins) Neat & Tangled; (flair from June kit Best Day of My Life) Scraptastic Club; (ice cream Plus One Puffy Stickers; Dear Lizzy puffy heart) American Crafts)

Die: (bow) American Crafts

Paper Smooches July DT Blog Hop

Hi everyone!

It's Pep Rally week and we are here today to share a sampling of the NEW Paper Smooches July/August release with you!  FIVE new stamps and EIGHT new dies are releasing soon.  Our new stamps and dies will release at midnight (eastern time) on June 30 (12:01am on July 1st EST). You will find our new releases HERE.

To add extra fun to our blog hop...we are offering up a prize! The prize - a $25 gift code to choose what you like at the PS online store. [Details are below.]

Here's the order of the hop:

Ashley Marcu
Betsy Veldman
Emily Leiphart
Erin Lincoln
JJ Bolton
Jocelyn Olson <--You are here
Kalyn Kepner
Kim Kesti
Laura Bassen
Laurie Schmidlin
Michele Boyer
Mou Saha
Pamela Ho
Summer Fullerton
Teri Anderson
Wendy Sue Anderson

Here's my card using the Kudos stamps:

I was inspired by Taheerah's awesome card for the background. I stamped the "beautiful" from the Kudos set repeatedly...it's not perfect, which I like. I actually made one that was a little neater and opted to not use it. ;)  I added the "you are" from the Kudos set. I love the bold look of these stamps! They are slightly smaller than Bold Buzzwords, but they would work together. 

I added the super sweet flowers from the new Blossoming Buds set on vellum. I layered the panel over some American Crafts paper, vellum, and tissue. Here's a close-up:

Want a chance to win a prize? Here are the details:

• FOUR winners will be chosen at RANDOM from any of the design team blogs and the PS Blog to win the $25 prize.
• Just leave a comment on any of the design team blogs listed below or the PS blog for your chance to win!  (you do not need to comment on all blogs to qualify but it increases your changes) 
• Deadline: You have until midnight MT on Sunday, June 29th to leave a comment. 
• Please check the Paper Smooches blog on Monday, June 30th to see if you are one of the FOUR lucky winners.  

To increase your chances of winning:

• Tell us that you Facebooked about our blog hop
• Tell us that you Tweeted about our hop
• Tell us that you posted on your blog about our blog hop

That means that you can comment up to THREE times on each blog! 

Thanks for stopping by! Next up is my sweet and very talented friend Kalyn!

Supplies

Stamps: (beautiful and you are from Kudos; flowers from Blossoming Buds) Paper Smooches (available 7/1)

Cardstock: (white, Linen Vellum) PTI

Patterned paper: (#Summer) American Crafts

Ink: (Versafine Black Onyx; Rose Bud Luxe) Tsukineko; (Taxi and Opaque White Mister Huey's) Studio Calico

You're Fabulous

Hi everyone! It's a busy week on the 'ole blog.

It's my last week as the guest for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. It's been a great month, and Lols and the team have been so nice and supportive. A big thank you for having me!

This week, the challenge is "Anything Goes." The Design Team is using American Crafts, too.

Here's what I came up with:

I cut up strips of American Crafts' Plus One papers to make the stripes. I stamped the tiny heart from the Paper Smooches' Blissful Banners in yellow to make another stripe and the "always" from Paper Smooches' Group Hugs below.

For the giant banner, I die-cut one of the Paper Smooches Streamers banners and stamped a sentiment from Blissful Banners. I was thinking it would work for a globe-trotting friend. :) Here's a close-up:




I finished the card with a tiny Plus One Puffy Sticker.

If you want to join the Anything Goes with Stripes, you can link up your projects HERE. You have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white linen)
Patterned paper: (Amy Tangerine's Plus One) American Crafts
Stamps: (banner from Blissful Banners; "always" from Group Hugs) Paper Smooches
Ink: (yellow Brilliance; Versafine Onyx Black) Tsukineko
Dies: (banner from Streamers) Paper Smooches
Embellishments: (globe die-cut from Plus One Bits; heart sticker from Plus One Puffy Stickers) American Crafts

Shine Bright

Hi everyone!

Each day this week, the Neat and Tangled and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L teams are sharing projects. Today, Joni and I are sharing projects on the Neat & Tangled blog.

Here's my project:

I started by stamping some stars and diamonds from the Neat & Tangled Sparkle and Shine set on cardstock and linen vellum. I clustered them on the banner using the Scrapbook Adhesives EZ Foam Dots and  Dodz Medium. 

I thought I needed one more element, so I used the Adhesive Transfer sheets and die-cut the glitterstock from it. That is one cool adhesive...it didn't get globby around the edges (yes, that's a technical term ;). I finished off the panel with a sentiment from Sparkle and Shine and a Neat & Tangled Crystal Clear sequin. Here's a close-up:

I layered some American Crafts, Webster's Pages, and Studio Calico papers and a Freckled Fawn doily. I also stamped one little star from the Sparkle and Shine set on the card base. Here's another angle:

What's a hop without prizes? There are two prize packs each containing a selection of Neat & Tangled stamps and sequins and Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L products. That's two prizes worth over $50 each! One winner will be chosen from Neat & Tangled blog comments and one by Scrapbook Adhesive blog comments.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day. 

Supplies

Cardstock: (white linen) Ellen Hutson; (linen vellum) PTI; (glitter cardstock) Best Creations

Stamps: (Sparkle & Shine) Neat & Tangled

Ink: (yellow Brilliance; Pink Angel Luxe) Tsukineko; (Pool) Fresh Ink

Embellishments: (doily) Freckled Fawn; (ticket from Daydreamer) American Crafts

You Are Here

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a great week!

I'm back with another Guest Designer card for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge. :)

This week's challenge is Stencil-It. The DT and I are using stencils from The Crafter's Workshop, but you can use whatever stencils you have for the challenge.

Here's my card:

I mixed three reinkers into my white Wendy Vecchi Embossing Paste. Then, I simply spread the three colors (light to dark seemed to work the best) over the You Are Here stencil. I layered the panel over some papers from the Plus One (still a fave!) and Highline collections.

I almost stamped a sentiment underneath, but decided I could stamp the inside. I was thinking maybe "thank you." Hmmm...what sentiment would you use with the front?

Here's a close-up:

Want to play along? One random participant will win a $50 gift certificate to Simon Says Stamp! Sweet!

 

 

You can link up your projects on the SSS Wednesday Challenge blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Supplies
Cardstock: (white) PTI
Patterned paper: (stripe, yellow from Plus One) American Crafts; (pink gradient from Highline) BasicGrey
Stencil: (You Are Here) The Crafter's Workshop
Embossing Paste: Wendy Vecchi White
Twine: (yellow) Hemptique