Pinkfresh Studios: Slimline Release and Giveaway!

Hello everybody and happy Friday! Today I'm joining in the fun of Pinkfresh Studio's new slimline stamp, die and stencil release! There are so many amazing new products and we've got a blog hop to share crafty inspiration and we've got multiple giveaways and some other great perks too (so make sure you check out the end of my blog post).

One of the really cool things about this release is that some of the products were created in trios! You can buy a stamp, die and stencil that are all designed to work together as a product suite. My first card was made using products from one of these trios. I stamped the Incredibly Grateful stamp set in black ink onto watercolor paper. I watercolored it and then used the large coordinating die to cut the whole thing out (there is a die that cuts the inside out too but I didn't use it on this card). To add some depth to the inside of the frame I used some gray copic markers to added shadows.

After stamping a sentiment from the Incredibly Grateful set I put that piece aside for a minute. Next, I used the Slim Diagonal Stitched dies to cut a piece of white cardstock. I ink blended in a soft blue and then splattered it with a marker. 

I used the Kelly Alpha lower case dies to cut "hey" out of some gold foil cardstock. This was such an easy and beautiful way to add to the sentiment and fill the space inside of the floral frame. I adhered the letters using glue dots. This gave them a little dimension and also made sure no foam tape would be visible through the cutouts in the letters. I layered the floral frame on top of the stitched die cut rectangle. All of that got glued to a slimline card base. The size I used for all of my cards today is 9" x 7.5" and scored at 3.25". This size works perfectly with many of the Pinkfresh Slimline Dies.

For my second card I used a different product suite. The stencil and die I used match the Floral Notes stamp set. I don't have the stamp set though and I was thrilled to see how well these stencils work on their own. The Floral Notes Stencils come in a three pack of layering stencils. I started with the largest images and ink blended using pink and purple. Next, I blended the leaves using two tones of green. It was so easy! I just used the lighter color of green first and then went over just part of the leaves with the darker green after that.

When I got to the third layer it was time to do the centers of the large flowers. Originally I had planned to use yellow embossing powder but when I opened up my drawer and saw this pink, sparkly glacier paste I had to use it. The pictures don't do it justice but this card sparkles like something else! I die cut the flowers  and set them aside.

I used the Slim Ornate Banner Die set to cut two pieces from white cardstock. The larger one I ink blended to match the pink from my flowers. The smaller one I ink blended in a blue green. When it was dry I stamped the sentiment which is from the You Are My Favorite stamp set, and then splattered the background first with water and then with my Glitter Gloss sparkle pen.

I adhered all of my layers together using lots of adhesive tape. The final touch was to add some gems and rhinestones in different colors and sizes.

For my last card I went really simple and I've gotta say that I love when making a simple card still yields a beautiful card! I used the new Argyle layering stencils (set of 2) to create this card. I started out with a piece of white cardstock cut out using the Slim Diagonal Stitched Rectangle Dies. I ink blended the background in yellow and red which yielded and orangey/coral color on the darker side. Then I used the stencil with the large diamond cut outs to ink blend using Unicorn white pigment ink from Hero Arts. I started on the darker side and since my ink was still a little bit wet my sponge blender lifted some of the colored ink and transferred just the right amount to the yellow side. I love how the light diamonds look against a darker background. 

The second stencil in this set has lines to complete the argyle look. I lined the "x" of the lines up with the centers of my diamonds and am happy with how that placement looks. I decided to heat emboss in gold so I pressed my Versamark ink pad repeatedly over the stencil to ink my background. Then I removed the stencil, poured on my embossing powder and heated it to melt it.

To finish my card off I added a "Hello" sentiment from the Essentials: Classic Word Die Set. The rest of the sentiment is from the You Are My Favorite stamp set. The final touch was adding a few gems.

That's all I've got for you today but there is so much more to see if you continue on the blog hop. There's a list below for you to follow along (your next stop will be Mindy Eggen). You can leave me a comment below to enter to win a $25 gift card. 

Have an awesome day!

Maria

GIVEAWAYS:

-Pinkfresh Studios will be giving away this entire amazing release over on their Facebook, Instagram and YouTube platforms! Make sure you visit to get entered to win!

-One lucky winner will be chosen right here on my blog to win a $25 gift card to Pinkfresh Studios! To enter to win you just have to leave a comment below! Good luck!

-Winners will be announced on October 23 over on the Pinkfresh Studios Giveaway page. Winners will have two weeks to claim their prize.

EVERYBODY WINS!:

-From October 16th - October 22nd Pinkfresh Studios is offering FREE SHIPPING (USA) or reduced shipping (international customers) to all customers who place an order of $50 or more. 

-While supplies last you can earn this beautiful die as a gift with a $25 purchase.

-Now through October 22nd, 2020 you can get 20% off of a Memory Misti (largest size Misti that is useful for many slimline products as well as for scrapbooking). Click HERE to purchase the Memory Misti using code: PINK to get your discount.

BLOG HOP LIST:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Hero Arts July My Monthly Hero Kit and a Giveaway!

Hi everybody and happy Monday! Today is the day we've all been waiting for! My Monthly Hero Kit release day! The theme for this month's kit is Atlantis and it is so cool! Today I have three cards using the add-ons from this month's kit to share with you.

My first card features my favorite stamp from the whole release... the Deep Sea Background cling stamp. This is a red rubber stamp and it stamps this full background image beautifully. It's a bit larger than an A2 sized card.

I used my Hero Arts liquid watercolors to paint the whole scene. I did film the process but didn't have time to turn it into a video for you. So, if you'd like to see a process video for how I colored this please leave me a comment and let me know. If you guys are interested I'll do my best to get that video edited soon for you.

After I watercolored the whole scene I added some metallic ink to the waves, clouds and treasure chest. I also added some shimmer from my Nuvo Glitter Gloss pen to the whole ocean so that it would sparkle.

Here's a look at some of the products that I used...

For my second card I used the Underwater Pattern Bold Prints background stamp. This is a 6"x6" stamp full of all kinds of underwater fun! 

I watercolored using Nuvo Aqua Flow pens and when that dried I stamped the image in black ink. I added some die cut seaweed in silver and black as well as some Dream Drops and subtle sequins.

The sentiment is from this month's main kit as is that gorgeous coral colored embossing powder.

This card came together with a soft, dreamy look that I think is really pretty.

For my last card I used another 6"x6" background stamp called School of Fish Bold Prints. I used my Misti stamping tool to make this card otherwise getting this effect would have been impossible. I started by inking up the center of my stamp in red and stamping it. Then, I did the next segment of fish in orange. I followed those with both yellow and green. 

After I had all of the fish inked up properly I stamped the whole image again in clear embossing ink. Then I poured on clear embossing powder and heat set it. That gave me one clear layer on top of my fish but I wanted them to have some dimension as if they were coming off of the card. I re-heated the embossed fish with my heat tool and immediately covered them again with clear embossing powder. I did this three our four times until all of my fish were thickly embossed. I used my anti-static tool before I embossed the whole background. I did not use it after that when I was trying to achieve thick embossing. This allowed for some specks of powder to stick on white areas of the card (for other cards this might be seem like a mistake but it was part of the distress effect on this card).

Now I have a white background with embossed fish. Because these fish are embossed I can now ink blend over the top of them without worrying about changing their color. I used my reactive inks to ink blend the background. I made the center of the card, where the tiny fish are, lighter in color as if they were swimming up towards the light.  I splattered my card with white metallic glimmer paint to give the look of bubbles and texture. Then, to finish my card off I stamped a sentiment from the main kit on a piece of card stock that I had colored with an ink pad (I just rubbed my Fruit Punch ink pad on white cardstock until it was saturated with ink). I cut it at a wonky angle and used foam tape to adhere it to my card. The final touch was to add some embellishments that looked like water droplets or gems and some dream drops.

Ok you guys, that's all I've got for today. If you're interested in checking out any of the products that I've shared I've got them all listed below for you. If you have any questions about how I made these cards please feel free to ask!

Now, as always Hero Arts is having a generous giveaway (details below), all you need to do is leave me a comment below to enter to win. If you're interested in purchasing this month's kit we have great news for you! The kit should start shipping this Friday, July 17th and continue shipping through next week.

To continue on with this inspiration filled hop please head on over to the lovely Mariana and check out what she's got to share today. If you prefer a list of hoppers, I've got one linked up for you below.

Have an awesome day and thanks for stopping by!
Maria




GIVEAWAY:

Hero Arts will give away one $50 gift card, drawn from the comments left across the hop. Enter by Sunday, July 19th at 11:59pm pacific, and the winner will be announced on the Hero Arts blog the following week.

BLOG ROLL:

Hero Arts
Amy Kolling
Channin Pelletier
Daniel West
Debi Adams
Emily Midgett
Ilina Crouse
Janette Kausen
Jenn Shurkus
Jessica Frost-Ballas
Julee Tilman
Laurie Willison
Lydia Fiedler
Maria Willis: You are HERE.
Mariana Grigsby
Michelle Short
Mindy Eggen
Nichol Spohr
Seeka
Yana Smakula



PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST:

Watercolored Daisy Fun!

Hey everybody! Happy Sunday! I hope you all are having a great day. I'm just popping in to share in a little watercoloring I've done with this beautiful Daisy stamp from Simon Says Stamp.

I used my Arteza watercolor brush pens and some Canson watercolor paper. The Canson is new to me and the ink definitely moves differently than with the Arches and Strathmore that I usually use. It's fun to have a new watercolor paper in my arsenal.

I used just five brush pens for this card but by mixing the inks I was able to create a beautiful color palette! After I finished watercoloring, I finished my card off by mounting it onto a black card base and adding an easy sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp Sentiment Strips "Get Well" pack. These strips make it so easy to add a great sentiment to your card!

Ok, that's it for today. I'm off to work on my taxes but I'll see you all back here tomorrow for the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero release!

Have an awesome day!
Maria

Crafty Friends: Concord & 9th and a 20% Discount!

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? It's a gorgeous day here in California, USA and I am itching to get outside and do some yard work in the sunshine. Before I head off to do that... today is My Crafty Friends day! If you haven't joined us before, we are a group of crafty friends who get together every month on the 20th for a blog hop. We feature projects from a specific company each month and they are so kind as to offer you all a discount! One of the cool things about this hop is that we feature our favorite sets from the company which means that you might see some oldie but goodie sets (inspiration for stamps you already have).

This month's featured company is none other than the fabulous Concord & 9th! and they are very generous to offer a 20% DISCOUNT to their entire store when you use THIS LINK and the code: CRAFTYFRIENDSJUNE20 (details below). 

Ok, now on to my card! Hello Lovely is one of my favorite ever stamp sets from Concord & 9th. It has a gorgeous floral bunch as well stamps to fill in the set with a watercolored look. There are also coordinating dies which you can get separately or buy the whole thing as a bundle. I decided to do a one layer card (ok, yeah, I did pop it up and cut a sliver off the side to peek the black card base) so I repeatedly stamped the large floral image around the edges of my card in Inkon3's Fade Out ink. This ink is made for no-line watercoloring as it takes on the color of the ink or watercolor that you use on top of it.

I used my Daniel Smith watercolors to paint this. I started with lighter layers of color and as they dried back I added more color. 

When I was done watercoloring I added a little extra shading with some colored pencils and a Sharpie. It might sound a little crazy to add sharpie to your watercolor pieces but I am telling you that Sharpies are one of my most used coloring tools.

To finish my card off I added some highlights with white gel pen, some gold Nuvo drops and a sentiment in Versafine ink. I also added splatters of gold with the Midas Touch shimmer pen from Tonic Studios and it was the perfect, subtle magic touch for this card (I wish that the camera picked up the shimmer).

Here are the details for the discount code from Concord & 9th. Remember that you need to use THIS LINK to get the discount. It's good for two days so if you'd like to take advantage of the discount head on over there before the time is up. 

I hope you'll keep on hopping along with us. Next up is the talented Becky Roberts! 

I hope you all have an amazing weekend! See you back here soon (in two hours bc today is a busy day for blogging for me!)!

Bye for now!

Maria

BLOG ROLL:

Lydia Fiedler

Jill Hilliard

Amy Kolling

Tanya Boser

Ilina Crouse

Maria Willis: YOU ARE HERE

Becky Roberts

Sandi MacIver

Sue Plote

Sara Sherlock

PRODUCT SUPPLY LIST:

Crafty Friends: Honeybee Stamps and a Discount!

Hi everybody! How are you all today? Well, I'm happy to be here because I am hopping along with my Crafty Friends. Today we are featuring the fabulous Honey Bee Stamps! Melissa (the owner) has generously offered an exclusive discount code for us to share with you! The code is at the bottom of my post (make sure you shop through the link provided) if you are interested.

I've made a ton of cards today because once I got going I just couldn't stop. For my first two cards I used this gorgeous floral stamp set called Everything Wonderful. It's designed by the talented Emily Midgett and I jus love it. I stamped the image onto Arches cold pressed watercolor paper in Hero Arts INTENSE-ified black ink.

Then I used my Karin markers and a paint brush to watercolor the image.

After watercoloring I used my cool cray copic markers to add some drop shadows. I enhance the shadows by adding scribbles and dots with a fine-tipped sharpie.

I cut the image out with the Honeybee Stamps deckled edge dies and adhered it to a black card base using foam adhesive. The finishing touch was to add a few subtle sequins.

My next card features the same stamp set, Everything Wonderful. This time I stamped the image off the edge of the watercolor cardstock to get a different look.

 I watercolored this piece with my Daniel Smith watercolor paints. 

I heat embossed the sentiment in white onto black cardstock and cut out the sentiment by hand. This Sympathy sentiment set does have fantastic coordinating dies but for this card I wanted a really close cut so I decided to do it by hand.

After adding the sentiment I added some Nuvo Dream Drops in Cloud Nine to add some subtle but gorgeous embellishment to the card.

Here's a side by side look at both of these cards. It's amazing how different you can make the same stamp set look just by stamping or coloring it differently.

For my next two cards I used the same Candle Cover Plate die. On this first card I ink blended a piece of white cardstock using Distress Oxide inks. Then I used the die to cut both the ink blended piece and a solid black piece of cardstock. I pieced all of the colorful candles into the black background.

I used the Birthday stamp set and honey cuts to create my sentiment and I love how sparkly it looks in that silver glitter paper. The sentiment is all popped up on foam for some fun dimension and of course I added a few sequins to bling my card out a little bit.

For my second card I used the extra pieces from my first birthday card. I took the ink blended background, pieced in a few of the black candles for some contrast and added a sentiment.

The sentiment is from the Wish stamp set and matching honey cuts. I love these combo sets as they are so versatile and useful.

 Here's a look at both of my birthday cards side by side.

And, that is it for me today folks! Before you go here's that awesome discount that Melissa is offering to you. It's a 20% on anything in the store at Honey Bee Stamps from now through May 21st. All you need to do to get this discount is use my link (CLICK HERE) and use the code CRAFTYFRIENDS20 when you check out. Enjoy and please thank Melissa if you order because she is super amazing to offer this to all of us!

I hope you all have an amazing day! If you'd like to continue on the hop please head on over to my friend Becky's blog. There's a list of all blog hoppers below if you'd like to follow the list.

If you want to check out any of the products that I've used today I am adding them to a list below so that you can find them easily. Enjoy!

Bye for now!
Maria


CRAFTY FRIENDS BLOG ROLL:
Sara Sherlock
Lydia Fiedler
Jill Hilliard
Jen Timko
Amy Kolling
Jenny Hall
Tanya Boser
Ilina Crouse
Maria Willis: You are Here.
Becky Roberts: Next
Sandi MacIver
Sue Plote



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