a2z Scrapbooking Birthday Blog Hop Bash

Hello everyone, and welcome to a2z Scrapbooking Birthday Blog Hop Bash!!! You should be arriving from Greta's lovely blog. If this is your first stop you'll want to begin at the a2z Scrapbooking blog so you don't miss out on any of the fun and beautiful creations we are sharing today.

I love a good party, and what's a good party without balloons?? 

I started with lots of white cardstock. Lots. You'd never tell now, right? ;) So, the card base is a standard A2 top-folding card that I cut from a piece of 8.5"x11" paper. The remaining strip I then cut in half and trimmed a bit, giving me my 4"x5.25" card front that I added texture paste to with the Arrow Pattern stencil. The last piece I smooshed with my Hero Arts neon inks in Green, Orange and Yellow. I love these bright colors, especially popped against the white. When the ink was dry I die cut some balloons and then added the stars in black for contrast. Where did they come from? The versatile Hero Arts 'Thanks' stamp and cut set.

I love all the texture and layers! I die cut a banner for my 'Happy Birthday' sentiment from the Glow Girl stamp set, then heat embossed it with some gold embossing powder. I added some fun foam behind my card front for uniform support, then added on my balloons and sentiment with foam tape. I left the balloon strings loose for added fun!

Now your next stop will be Kelly's blog!

Be sure to leave a comment on every blog to be entered into the random drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to the store. You have until Sunday, April 26th at 11:59pm EST to leave your comments and the winner will be announced on the a2z Scrapbooking blog.

Happy hopping!

Butterfly Garden Stenciled Mother's Day Card

Hey everyone - I'm over at the a2z Scrapbooking blog today sharing how I made this bright & beautiful butterfly garden card:

Come over and take a peek!

Supply List:
Hero Arts Large Lotus Pattern stencil
Hero Arts Shadow Inks - Field Greens, Passion Flower, Butter Bar, Grape Juice, Ultra Pink, Orange Soda
Hero Arts Celebrate Everyday stamp set
Hero Arts Butterfly Fancy dies
Ranger Transparent Matte Texture Paste
Sponge Daubers
Hero Arts Assorted Gemstones
Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder
Hero Arts Mocha Layering paper (and it's on sale!!)
Zig Wink of Stella Clear

Neenah Solar White 110# cardstock
Pretty Pink Posh Stitched Tags 1 dies
Vellum
VersaMark ink
Tombow - mono multi liquid and Xtreme adhesive

Please note - some links are affiliate links, meaning I get credit if you shop using one of them. Seeing as they finance giveaways and prizes, I would greatly appreciate it if you used them. Thanks!

Remember if you go shopping at a2z Scrapbooking to use code Jennifer15 at checkout to receive 15% off your purchase of $25 or more.

Happy Crafting!

National Craft Month with Mountain Plains Crafters and Unity Stamps

Hey everyone! We just couldn't let March, aka National Craft Month, go by without some sort of celebration over at Mountain Plains Crafters so we teamed up with the ever-awesome Unity Stamp Co. and have a great giveaway for you!

We are having a tag-a-friend event at our Facebook Community page.  Head on over to our FB page and be sure to "like" us, then look for the pinned post so you can comment and tag your friends.

The ever-so-generous Unity Stamp Company is offering not one, but two fabulous prizes!  A grab bag of 25 random stamps will go to one random tagger and their friend.

This event begins at 6:00 am on Monday, Mar.23, 2015 and ends Wed. Mar.25, 2015 at midnight ET. The 2 winners will be announced on the MPC blog and Facebook page on Friday.

Due to the high cost of shipping, this is for US residents only, so sorry.  We do offer giveaways on occasion internationally, so check back.

Of course we need some cards to celebrate, and this time our theme is Easter:

Yup, I'm still on my watercolor kick! I started with some watercolor paper and heat embossed the Unity sentiment in white embossing powder, then started layering on my Distress Inks like paint with my water brush.

Colors used (from top left down): Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry, and Dusty Concord

While that dried, I got to work on my card base. I cut a piece of Bazzill Taffy cardstock to make a standard A2 top-folding card, then added some interest to the bottom by die cutting a curve with one of my Pretty Pink Posh border dies. To dress up the inside, I added a strip of Pinkfresh Studio washi tape along the bottom.

Once my watercolor piece was dry, I die cut it quick with a stitched rectangle from Lawn Fawn and flicked on some water droplets to add some interest, then cut down some fun foam for height. Time for assembly - fun foam to watercolor piece, whole thing glued to the card base with Tombow Xtreme adhesive so it wouldn't move. Add a small scattering of gold sequins and this card was done!

Right now we're at 384 'likes' on Facebook - if we get to 500 there will be a bonus prize given away! Go on, tag your friends, get those likes, and win some fun stamps in time for Easter. :)

Supply list:
Unity Stamp Co. - Dying Eggs
Bazzill Taffy Card Shoppe card stock
Ranger Watercolor Paper
Distress Inks - Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, Abandoned Coral, Picked Raspberry, Dusty Concord
Hero Arts White Embossing Powder
Water brush
Pinkfresh Studio washi tape
Pretty Pink Posh - Stitched Border Dies 1, 4mm gold sequins
Lawn Fawn Small Stitched Rectangle dies
Fun Foam
Tombow Xtreme adhesive
Ranger Multi Medium Matte

Please note - some links are affiliate links, meaning I get credit if you shop using one of them. Seeing as they finance giveaways and prizes, I would greatly appreciate it if you used them. Thanks!

Happy Crafting!

Wedding Roses

Tired of all of my wedding-related posts yet? ;) Now that I'm quite sure my sister and new brother-in-law have received their card, I can finally share it with all of you!

Funny story; this card was sort of done before the wedding. Kind of. Ok, a few pieces were and then I packed up everything else I needed (including the heat gun) and brought it to the hotel with me and finished it the morning after the ceremony. What, am I the only one who's ever done that? Hey, I had 75 fan programs to finish first!!

I bought the new Ranger Texture Paste and simply went to town with my stencils one night playing with it, so that lovely background was already sitting in my stash. The red ribbon was actually part of some packaging from an online order (yay for reusing!) so all I had to really create were the roses. My dear friend Annette over at Feeding the Soul with Art handed me her DeNami rose stamp and said "here, this is what you need for a wedding card" and she was so right.

I heat embossed two of the roses with the gorgeous Ranger Liquid Platinum embossing powder; OMG is this stuff beautiful! I almost could have left the roses alone, but instead went in with the Distress Markers in  Fired Brick and Peeled Paint for just enough color. After letting the markers dry for a moment, I fussy-cut them out and used my favorite foam tape on just the rose buds and some of the leaves to stick them to the card. The stems were tied with the ribbon and then tacked down under the ribbon. Made them more three-dimensional and made it so that I didn't have to try and glue down those little stems!

I opened up my brand new Wink of Stella clear pen and proceeded to get a HUGE drop of it right on the card. ACK! I freaked out, looked again, and added 3 more to balance it all out and make it look intentional. Yup, when in doubt, act like it was intentional. Then I added it to the rosebuds as I had planned all along. All done!

We have two more weddings to attend this month, so better be prepared for more wedding posts! I'm also blogging over at Mountain Plains Crafters today about a stunning (if I do say so myself) fall card I made up for our latest card challenge. Be sure to stop on by and say 'hello'!

Linking up to: Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge; Bold

Happy Crafting!