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!

Getting Embellish-y with Maya Road

Hi everyone! Are you ready for the holidays? I wish I had one more month. :)

I'm on the Maya Road blog sharing three last-minute holiday cards. It's no secret I like to use embellishments, and I wanted to mix embellishments and the October Afternoon papers from the gorgeous Maya Road Holiday Treasures kit. In addition to the embellishments and papers, the kit has a beautiful stamp set. :)

I hope you'll check out the post (here)!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Have a happy holidays!

Merry Christmas

Hi everyone!

I went a little rustic on the Maya Road blog today with three holiday cards. If you haven't seen them, Maya Road periodically sells kits for cards, minis, and the holiday. I used the new Holiday Treasures kit for my cards. I hope you'll check out the rest of the projects on the blog! :)

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend!

Home

Hi everyone! Happy Thursday!

I'm up on the Maya Road blog with a home decor project using the House Shadow Box and Crate Paper's Wonder collection. Each "room" of the house could be translated to a card, too. I hope you check it out! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Summer (Non-Traditional) Mini Album

Hi everyone! We got back from our trip to the Black Hills. For years, I've wanted to see Devils Tower (I blame Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and I finally got to see it. My family and some of our friends met up to hike around it, and I *loved* it. If you have a chance to visit, it's worth the trip!

Anyhoo, I'm up on the Maya Road blog sharing a non-traditional mini album:

I started with the Wood ATC Box and altered it to make a tag/card/bag drawer as the album.

Here are most of the tags and cards:

For the tags and cards, I mixed lots of Maya Road products with October Afternoon Summertime patterned papers and stickers. The cute popsicle is from My Favorite Things' You're the Sweetest stamps and dies, and the star is a MFT Lucky Stars die.

I have to say, it was one of the most fun projects I've ever made--all of the scrappy layering and altering was a blast. I love these products!! :)

Here is a picture of the whole box:

I have several other pictures on the Maya Road blog. I hope you'll swing by and check it out! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

The Places You'll Go

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. For Father's Day, my kids made books for my husband using a Tinyme printable (this site has some cute printables). If you follow me on Instagram (@jocelyn_olson), I shared a funny drawing my son drew. :)

Anyhoo, I'm up on the Maya Road blog today talking about three different styles of embellished cards. Here is one:

This card was a product sample for Maya Road, and I needed to use the necklace. The chain is long, and it's a heavy necklace, so this card took a bit of engineering to attach the necklace. I put the long necklace chain in the Maya Road Linen Treasure Bag and ran a few stitches through it. These bags are great for giving small presents are party favors (wouldn't it be cute for a pirate party?).

The cute Camera Clip was altered using gold liquid gilding...I'm addicted to gilding things! I used Crate Paper's Journey collection.

I have two other cards on the Maya Road blog. I hope you'll swing by and check them out!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Embellishing a Shaped Card

Hi everyone! How's your week going? We're out of school now--woo hoo!

I'm up on the Maya Road blog with a couple of cards. Here's one:

As soon as I saw the Maya Road You Are My Sunshine buttons, I knew I had to use them as owl eyes. I started by die-cutting the owl Build-a-Critter die I picked up when Clear and Simple Stamps had a half-off sale last year.

For the nose, I inked up the Maya Road Mini Confetti Heart chipboard with gold ink. At the bottom of the owl, I added the new Pearl Trim. What owl doesn't need a set of pearls?

I finished the owl by adding the adorable Maya Road Sparkle Sequin Bow. I am loving these bows and having a hard time not putting them on every card. As a matter of fact, I used the bow on my second card, which is on the Maya Road blog. I hope you check it out! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Puppy Love

Hi everyone! It's Friday--yeah! My daughter is in a play tonight, and she's having a party tomorrow...it's going to be a busy weekend here.

Today, I'm up on the Maya Road blog sharing a card, ways to alter metal clips, and a tutorial for embossing metal clips. I've developed quite an addiction to the Maya Road clips. They are so cute!

The clip I altered is on this new puppy hybrid card:

I started by embossing the background with the MFT Polka Dots Cover-up. Next, I layered digital patterned papers from the From Where I Stand collection by Paislee Press.

There are more photos and a tutorial showing how to alter the clips on the Maya Road blog. I hope you check it out!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a great weekend!


Supplies
Cardstock: (white) Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper: (From Where I Stand digital collection) Paislee Press at The Lilypad
Ink: (Opaque White Mr. Huey's) Studio Calico; VersaMark
Embellishments: (Framed Sayings Transparency; Vintage Doily Transparency; Gold Heart Tag Charm; Lucky Star Wood Button; Mini Pom Pom Trim; Man's Best Friend Clip; Our Home Kraft Tag; Princess Jute Cording) Maya Road
Embossing powder: (Sunshine) Sparkle 'n Sprinkle

April Paper Smooches DT Blog Hop

**This is my second post of the day. To see my My Favorite Things post, please click HERE. 

Hi everyone!

It's Pep Rally week and we are here today to share a sampling of the NEW Paper Smooches May release with you! TWO new stamps and TEN new dies will be available to purchase on April 30th 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, April 26th to leave a comment. 
• Please check the Paper Smooches blog on Monday, April 27th to see if you are one of the FOUR lucky winners. 

A couple of our designers are taking a small hiatus to care for different things in their lives. Amy Rohl is filling in for Emily and Jennifer McGuire is filling in for Pamela. We are so excited to have them join us in May! Here's the order of the hop:

Amy Rohl
Ashley Marcu
Jennifer McGuire
JJ Bolton
Jocelyn Olson <--You are here
Kalyn Kepner
Kay Miller
Laura Bassen
Laurie Schmidlin
Michele Boyer
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 Mustaches die:

I made a Father's Day card and treat jar. First, I started with a simple card. I die-cut the Mustaches dies out of new Treasure Map papers. They make me chuckle. :) The stamp is from the Daddy Yo stamp set, which will be released in May.

Here's a close-up:

I used the dies for a treat container, too:

I layered the Treasure Map papers and on the map paper, I stamped the "DAD" sentiment from the Daddy Yo set. For the top, I added some photo prop mustaches. My kids are going to go nuts with these! They were already playing with some of the leftover die cuts. My daughter is having a detective party in a few weeks, and she's already asked me to make some mustaches for the party to use for mug shots. ;) 

On the rosettes, I used the Pinked Circles dies. Here's a close-up:

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

Supplies

Dies: (Mustaches die; Pinked Circles die) Paper Smooches

Stamps: (Daddy Yo) Paper Smooches

Cardstock: (Rustic White) Paper Smooches
papers: (Treasure Map) October Afternoon
Ink: (Versafine Smokey Grey) Tsukineko; (Navy) Fresh Ink; (Dandelion Yellow spray mist) Tsukineko
Ribbon: (red) Paper Source

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!

Altenew March Blog Hop

Hi everyone! Sorry to be so absent....I was on an 11-day work trip. Yikes! Now that I'm home, I'm trying to catch up on posts. Today, I'm participating in a special Altenew blog hop:

Yep, Altenew is releasing dies and new antique trims! Altenew is releasing 12 stamp-matching dies this month, and the antique trims include foiled frames. You can check them out in the shop HERE. To celebrate, we're having a blog hop. If you're hopping along, you should be coming from May's blog. Here's the complete list:

Altenew

May Sukyong Park 

Jocelyn Olson <-- You are here.

Marika Rahtu

Yana Smakula

Melania Deasy

I made two projects, both using the Vintage Flowers Dies. First up, a card:

Truth time: I don't stamp too many floral multi-step stamps, and therefore I don't have go-to ink combinations. So, I played around with pretty much every dye ink I own and stamped several flowers. Okay, maybe 50. ;) Here are the inks I used (all combinations are from the darkest layer to the lightest layer):

• Yellow: Hero Arts Butter Bar, Stampin Up! YoYo Yellow stamped off once, SU! Barely Banana
• Pink: Hero Arts Pale Tomato, Hero Arts Pale Tomato stamped off once, SU! Pink Pirouette
• Darker pink: SU! Strawberry Slush, Hero Arts Pale Tomato, SU! Pink Pirouette

I used the Vintage Flowers Stamps and Vintage Flowers Dies for the flowers and leaves. The dies make these flowers easy to use and are perfect for layering flowers. For the sentiment, I used the new Birthday Greetings set. In the background, I watercolored some stripes with a (ground-down) Silver Gelato.

Here's a close-up:

See the gold Vineleaf Frame? I trimmed the inner layer of the frame, and now I have a second frame for a future project. :) This frame is a pretty rich-gold color that's so popular right now.  They're great for layering, or you could add a sentiment for a CAS card.

Next, I have an altered hoop:

It's been a while since I've made a hoop, but I wanted to make one for my daughter. I used the same Vintage Flowers stamps and Vintage Flower dies for the flowers and leaves. For the sentiment, I masked off two sentiments from To the Moon.

The ink colors I used here were:

• Yellow: Hero Arts Butter Bar, Stampin Up! YoYo Yellow stamped off once, SU! Barely Banana
• Pink: My Favorite Things Razzle Berry Hybrid, Hero Arts Bubblegum stamped off once, SU! Pink Pirouette

I painted the hoop and then followed THIS tutorial for the background. Once I had the base completed, I added the die-cuts and a few embellishments. The flowers are so cheerful!

Prizes: There are two ways to win!

To celebrate this release, Altenew will draw three winners who will each receive a $30 gift certificate to their online store. Please leave a comment on the Altenew blog by Friday, March 20th 11:59pm EST for a chance to win. The winners will be announced on Saturday, March 21st.

Altenew is also offering a $30 gift certificate for comments on this blog post. For a chance to win this extra gift certificate, please leave a comment on my post by Friday, March 20th at 11:59pm.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Next up on the hop is the incredible Marika. I'm sure you're in for a treat!

Joy Mini Album

Hi everyone! We're starting Spring Break today. I always find it amusing that Spring Break is before Valentine's Day (especially in South Dakota). But I'm looking forward to sleeping in for a few days! :)

I'm up on the Maya Road blog today with a mini album. 

I used a lot of altered Maya Road supplies, the October Afternoon Girl Talk collection, and a few stamps from Altenew's Figure Effects set. I hope you'll swing by and check it out! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Getting Happy with Maya Road

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! Can you believe it's February? Ack! 

I'm excited to be sharing my first post on the Maya Road blog. I have a couple of cards with a lot of altered Maya Road supplies. I hope you'll swing by and check it out! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!