Spellbinders Blog Hop Featuring Folk Art by Lene Lok

Hi everyone!  I'm really excited to be participating in a blog hop today featuring some of Spellbinder's newest releases.  I'm working with products from Lene Lok's new Folk Art collection for Spellbinders.

If you've been following me for a while, you know that I love Scandinavian designs, so I was really excited to work with these new dies.  I created three cards to share with you today.

My first card features the Floral Mandala die.  This is a beautiful large die that carries the whole card.  To create this card, I die cut the mandala three times.  Once from cream cardstock, once from watercolor paper, and once from black cardstock.

I used the die cut from the watercolor paper as the focal point and colored it using Spectrum Noir Aqua markers.  I also added some additional shading/details using my Prismacolor Pencils.

The colored die cut piece was inlaid into the frame created from the cream die cut and the negative pieces from the black die cut were inlaid in the negative spaces between the flowers and leaves.

This was all arranged over a piece of kraft cardstock, but not adhered.  I then colored the kraft cardstock beneath the flowers using the Prismacolor pencils.  Once that was complete, all the pieces where adhered/inlaid in place.

The sentiment is from my Dala Horse stamp set for Neat & Tangled.

This next card features elements from the Nordic Blooms set.  I love this set because you get so much bang for your buck.  There are 11 dies in the set and countless ways to combine them.  For my card, I cut several of the elements from different cardstocks and arranged them to form a pattern.

The sentiment is from an older Mama Elephant set called Filigree.  Don't you love the great details/texture in these dies?

Finally a very clean and simple card to wrap things up.  This card features the Nordic Floral set.  There are five dies in the set, and I used just the three smaller flowers.  They were die cut in both black and white and then adhered onto some bright cardstock tiles with the white negative pieces inlaid into the black.

A black mat finished things off and I added a sentiment from Neat & Tangled's So Many Sentiments set.

Three very different looks with these folk art dies.  I hope this gives you some ideas on how you might use them!

Every blog hop should have prizes right?  Well if you head over to the Spellbinders blog you can enter to win a $50 gift certificate to the store.  And, I also get to give away a prize!  Leave a comment to be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to Spellbinders.  I'll announce a winner next Wednesday.

Your next stop is Emily Midgett, and the entire hop list is below if you need it.  Happy hopping!

Spellbinders 

Debby Hughes 

Kay Miller 

Julia Altermann 

Laurie Willison 

Miriam Prantner 

Emily Midgett 

Yana Smakula 

Nichol Spohr 

Sharyn Sowell 

Melissa Phillips 

Susie Lessard 

Virginia Lu 

Nina-Marie Trapani 

May Sukyong Park 

Rubeena Ianigro 

Zsoka Marko 

Helen Salo 

Sandra Nagel 

Janette Kausen 

Kittie Caracciolo 

Olga Direktorenko 

Svitlana Shayevich 

Mayline Jung

Valkommen - Hero Arts Street Map Background

It's very possible that I check the sale section at Simon Says Stamp with alarming frequency.  That's because they have some crazy amazing steals over there. For example, I picked up this background from Hero Arts for only 99 cents the other day!

HA makes my favorite background stamps, so picking this up at that price was a no brainer.

Because I wanted the streets to be nice and black with white dotted lines, I started with a black base, stamped with Versamark, and heat embossed in white.

I also stamped the background on some green patterned paper and white cardstock.

The green paper pieces were cut out and then pieced onto my black base and the images (trees, houses, etc) on the white cardstock were colored with Copics and then pieced on top of the green. 

I had considered just stamping twice (embossed on black) and then on white and coloring everything, but that seemed like a lot of green coloring, so I opted for the green patterned paper, but it was a little too flat, so I added some very soft shading in a couple corners on each of the rectangles. 

I wanted a 'Welcome to the Neighborhood' sentiment for this, but I looked through all of my sets and shockingly could not find one (this must be rectified), so I went with this sentiment from my Dala Horse set.

This is such a fun background with lots of possibilities!  Best 99 cents I ever spent!  (This background is no longer available at Simon (no surprise there), but you can pick it up at Ellen or Hero Arts.)

Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge Guest Designer

Hey everyone!  I'm guesting over at the Tic-Tac-Toe challenge this week.  

I was actually quite challenged by the board.  It seemed like in every row there were two spaces where I had a good idea, but then the third item threw me for a loop.

I finally decided to go with the bottom row:  inlaid design, monochromatic, and scalloped border.

I used some scalloped border dies from MFT to create an inlaid piece that was then trimmed it down to create the panel you see.  I then used that gorgeous Branching Out die from PTI as a focal point over the panel.  

To soften the transition between the scalloped panel and the card base, I added a vellum fishtail banner which was turned into a tag.  Some Lawn Trimming twine added extra texture and interest.  



The Branching Out die was attached to the scalloped panel using my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher.  I like the movement you get in delicate die cuts when you don't adhere the whole thing.  A little extra stability/adhesion was provided by the foam tape I used to attach the sentiment strip.  The sentiment is from my Dala Horse set for Neat & Tangled.

Please stop by the Tic-Tac-Toe Challenge blog to see the whole board as well as inspiration from the Design Team.  Hope you will play along too, there are prizes!  

*Affiliate Links Below

My Favorite Things Die-namics, Blueprints 23

Lawn Fawn Hemp Cord, Cloudy

VersaMark Ink Pad

Ranger Super Fine Embossing Powder, White

Tim Holtz, Tiny Attacher

Scotch Double-Sided Foam Mounting Tape

Four Leaf Clover

Hey everyone!

Just popping in to share a really simple clean and simple St. Patrick's Day card.

I've planned to create a card like this ever since we released the Scored Shapes Dies at Neat & Tangled.

So easy to do.  I just cut the large and medium hearts from green cardstock four times, and tacked them down to create a four leaf clover.  I cut a thin curve of cardstock for the stem as well.  Then I stitched all the pieces down and added a sentiment from my Dala Horse set.



For some extra interest, I added a bit of doily, some patterned paper, a thin strip of gold cardstock, and a bit of stitching along the right border.

That's all for me today.  Hope your week is going well!

Advent Calendar Extravaganza with Taheerah Atchia

I'm happy to be participating in my friend Taheerah's Advent Extravaganza today.

Advent Calendar Extravaganza is -the- festive event of the season! This ‘hop with a twist’ was dreamed up by Taheerah Atchia and features surprise destinations each day! Joining in the fun with Taheerah are over 60 special guests - each serving up some fantastic Christmas inspiration! Just like an Advent Calendar, you’ll never know where you’re going to be visiting next until you ‘open the door’!

And that’s not all! With 25 *amazing* sponsors taking part as well, your crafty wish list is bound to get a boost with a chance to win a prize EVERY SINGLE DAY!!

Join in the fun every day at taheerah-atchia.com to see what special surprises wait behind the door!

It’s not a party without a prize - and with prizes every day there are several chances to win! Today’s prize is generously supplied by Neat & Tangled so you’ll definitely want to get your hands on it!

Here's what I put together:



Dala Horse has surprisingly turned into my go-to set for quick Christmas projects.  I created this tag a while back, and wanted to do something similar in card format.

I just love how the horse looks embossed in white on kraft.

To add a little extra punch and interest I added watercolored accents in white and red using Kuretake Gansai watercolors.

The sentiment is from Bright Baubles and a bit of twine finishes it off.

I know you want to get your hands on that prize from Neat & Tangled, right?  Simply leave a comment on this post to enter - then head back to taheerah-atchia.com and leave a comment there too to double your chances! Don’t forget to grab the other surprise destinations from Taheerah’s blog and head over to them to leave comments there as well to improve your odds even more! You have until 7am EST on Thursday 31st December to leave all your comments!

Don’t forget the Advent Calendar Extravaganza runs from 1st-25th December inclusive so make sure you visit taheerah-atchia.com every day for fabulous inspiration and amazing prizes every single time! Merry Christmas!

Kuretake Gansai Tambi, 36 Color Set

Stampendous Embossing Powder, Detail White, 0.76 oz.

Lawn Fawn Hemp Cord, Peppermint

The 25 Days of Christmas Tags

I'm happy to be participating in Tracey McNeely's 25 Days of Christmas Tags event.

Today some of the Neat & Tangled and Little Tangles DT members are sharing tags.

I really enjoy making tags, and once I got started, it was hard to stop!  I ended up with three.



I used the new Classic Tag 1 die for each of these.  For this first one I clear embossed Origami Map on  a tag cut from watercolor paper.  The map was colored with Inktense pencils using a pencil to brush technique (where you just pick up color directly from the pencil using a paintbrush).



The embossing was ironed off, and then the sentiment, using Christmas Journaling and Bible Journaling Companions was stamped using Versafine and clear embossed.  I used Kuretake gold paint to color in the Joy.



Next up a super simple tag design that is perfect for mass producing and easy enough for your kids to help.  I used watercolor paper again, and randomly stamped the circles from Dala Horse in Delicata ink.  The circles were watercolored with Inktense pencils again using the pencil to brush technique.



The sentiment is from Bright Baubles and embossed in gold.



Finally, I had to pull out the Dala Horse Dies.  I created a tag for the N&T release with the Dala Horse stamp set here, but I wanted to show how perfect the dies are for Christmas too.  This was pretty simple.  The tag was die cut from a panel created using the Graduated Stripes Cover Plate.

The Dala Horse was popped up with some foam tape and then the sentiment, from Happy Holidays, was added.



Hope this gives you a few ideas for Christmas.  Be sure to stop by the Neat & Tangled blog, Danielle has a tag up there, and of course stop by Tracey's blog as well.  There are a whole lot of sponsors for this event.  You can leave comments on her 25 Days posts to enter as well as link up a tag.  Good luck!

Neat & Tangled Release Week - Day 2

I've been anxiously awaiting this day for months!

I'm so excited to introduce you to my newest stamp sets:  Dala Horse and Scandinavian Flowers.

 

My husband Andrew is Swedish on his mother's side of the family, so he's always had ties to Scandinavia, and a few years ago (pre kids) we were able to take a vacation to Sweden, so fun.  Anyway, I knew that I needed to design a Dala Horse stamp set, even my daughter was excited about this one!  I was very excited to be able to create coordinating dies too.

The Dala Horse takes center stage in the stamp set, but I also wanted to include some 'building' images in the set.  Here are some examples of how the additional images could be used.



I also love Scandinavian florals.  These are often quite bold and graphic, I wanted a little more organic take on them.  The floral set includes a bunch of flower options, and in many ways is a companion set to Dala Horse.  The fonts are the same and the sentiments really can be mixed and matched.



OK, onto the samples.  My original plan for this week was to make some felt Dala Horse ornaments (which will definitely be made before Christmas), but the whole dead die cut machine really put a crimp in my plans, so I went for my old standby - paper piecing.  This is a little busier than my cards tend to be, but I liked the fabric look to that background paper.




Next a couple of simple cards using Scandinavian Flowers.  I wanted to show how versatile the set is.  The first card has a soft and pretty elegance, while the second card is a little more rustic.  I'm tickled with the sentiment on the second card too.  As a huge Anne of Green Gables fan, I just had to slip that one in.





OK, that's all for me today, you DEFINITELY want to head over to the N&T blog.  Danielle is hosting a giveaway for Scandinavian Flowers and the DT cards are just amazing.  Remember, that I'm giving away two sets too.  I'll pick two winners from all comments left on the Release Week posts at the end of the week.  One person will win Scandinavian Flowers and the other will win Dala Horse.

I've got one more product debuting this week, so be sure to come back tomorrow!