Altenew September 2023 Stamps, Dies, Stencil and More Release | Blog Hop + Giveaway ($300 in Total Prizes!)

 Hi all!

I am so excited and honored to be joining Altenew for September's blog hop!  You should have arrived here from the ever creative and fabulous Laurie Wilson, but if you'd like to start from the beginning, head on over the Altenew's blog. I am featuring the adorable Magical Forest Ensemble and if you have any teenager girls, you know these images are right up their 'cottage core' alley!  Both of my teenagers are into all things mushroom and crystal, so this set was a MUST have for me.

First off, the Mushroom Greetings bundle pieces are pun-tastic and charming.  This set is perfect to show your love and affection to those 'anx-tee' teenagers!  My youngest is obsessed with mushrooms and I added a card in her backpack on the first day of school last week.  When asked if she saw it she replied, 'Yeah...it's cool.' in the MOST teenagery fashion ever...I'll take that as a win.

Coloring these images is easy with Atenew's alcohol markers.  I now understand how addicting coloring images is...I have at least 20 mushrooms extra.  I added some sprigs of greenery and cut a circle in my card front with the Create-A-Wreath die set and nestled all the pieces in the circle after I  embossed it with Dotted Waves.

I cannot forget to mention the Mushroom Garden layering stencil set!   I'm loving the new stencils to create a paper to match anything you want.  Genius!  I kept this background monotone with the soft colors of the Warm Gray Crisp Die Inks set and added a simple tag with a single mushroom with the perfect sentiment...this one will go to my collage Sophomore daughter sometime soon.

The other part of the Magical Forest Ensemble are the crystals!  The Shining Crystals embossing folder and stencil set.  It's magic.  My oldest has a crystal set with iridescent colors, and I attempted to simulate that with this card. I started by embossing an 80 lb Neenah Classic Crest cardstock cut to an A2 size.  I then used the coordinating stencils with Lagoon, Ultraviolet and Rubellite Crisp Die Inks with the mini blending brushes.  The tops of the crystals were inked with Mountian Mist.

After I had it completely stenciled, I added some glitter paste for some extra sparkle!  It's hard to see in photos, but trust me, it's there.  I fussy cut the crystals out and added them to a gray piece of cardstock with some ink splatters and the sentiment heat embossed with Obsidian Pigment Ink and Clear Embossing Powder.

NOW...on to the good stuff... Altenew is giving away $300 in total prizes! To celebrate this release, Altenew is giving away a $100 gift certificate to 1 lucky winner and a $40 gift certificate to 5 winners! Please leave a comment on the Altenew Card Blog and/or each designer’s blog post on the blog hop list below by 09/06/2023 for a chance to win. Altenew will draw 6 random winners from the comments left on each stop of this blog hop and announce the winners on the Altenew Winners Page on 09/08/2023.

THANK YOU so very much for visiting me today, I hope you'll also visit and subscribe to PaperFiori on Instagram and Youtube for more inspiration and Altenew fun!!  The next stop on the hop is the lovely Michelle Burnier.

Have a colorful and blessed day!

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Wood Cookie delight

 Hi all!

Just a quick post today!

I'm in LOVE with this new die set from Altenew!  The name is too cute too...

It is called Wood Cookie!  It's such a cute wood piece, I may even make 60 of them for my annual cookie party this year.......I am now re-thinking my decor plan......

Anyhoo, the die was cut out and and inked to give it a rustic touch and the adorable little lady bug comes with it!  It's so darn adorable...  I added pieces of leaves from Altenew's Create a Wreath and the sentiment comes from their https://altenew.com/products/everyday-sentiments foil set.

I'm entering this into the Paper Players challenge this week thanks to that little lady bug!

Have a colorful day!

Bold Sneak Peek! TFC #83 CHALLENGE WINNER!

Hi all!

I have only been able to spend a few hours here and there in the studio between doctors appointments, back to school requirements and babysitting our adorable god-daughter.  Each and every minute I spend lost in ink, paper and stamps; I realize how much I miss being out here every day...  Hopefully soon things will slow down and I will have a new normal schedule.  Until then, I'll sneak out here whenever I can!

I am again honored to have been asked to be a guest designer with Altenew for the month of September and I'm going to offer you a little sneak peek at one of my favorite sets, Bold Bouquet.  It has a stamp set, coordinating stencils, embossing folder and sentiment die set.  Its a lovely set and I thought I'd showcase one of the projects I made for the release and for this month's Flower Challenge, Spots and Stripes.

You cant get this set until September, but it is worth the wait!  It's a great set to make an easy card that doesn't take much time at all....well....unless you're like me and love to be 'extra'...

I used the embossing folder and the coordinating stencils for the flowers along with the new Fresh Dye Inks, Olive and Dusty Pink from the Deco Garden release in July.  After adding the color to the flowers, I used a little mono glue on the stamen of the flowers, let it dry for a few minutes and then rubbed gold foil to it.  It just adds a little shimmer to the blossoms.  

The background was created with Altenew's Tiny Pattern Foil Plates, 2 runs down the right side of a card front with gold foil and voila'!  I then fussy cut the blossoms which was totally worth the work, and added it to the front.  The sentiment was stamped from Versatile Greetings 2 along with 'Birthday' from the Sentiments Strips 3 stamp set.

I finished it off with some yellow enamel dots.  It does give me an 'old lady' vibe with the soft colors, but it's perfect for my mom to give to someone special for their birthday.  

That's it!  Have a colorful day!

Yellow-Green Watercolors

 HI all!

Quick post here...

I recently created a video for a 'watercolor' technique I tend to use often, and with all the craziness going on in my life, I haven't had a chance to blog about it until now!  This card was my 'practice' before I did any taping, and the colors are the perfect shade of yellow-green!  Perfect for the Colorful Options challenge for August.

I won't get into all the deets on how to do it here, but you don't have to have ANY artistic talent to make a watercolor masterpiece!  Just stamps, ink, water and maybe some salt...

This is made with stamps!  The new Altenew Cupped Flowers stamp set to be precise, but any solid image stamp will do for this technique.

The pink is my favorite complimentary color to the yellow-green color.  They make each other pop!

If you're really fancy, try adding some salt to the stamped image while it is still wet and let it dry...you'll love the results it creates!  You can see more of this technique and the results of the salt in the video below...

I hope you have a colorful day!!

Simple Leaves

 Hi all!

I love fall, the crisp air and crunchy leaves...but it needs to wait a bit longer!  I'm not ready for summer to be over and the weather here in Ohio has been very fall like.  We are very lucky however, most of the west coast is dealing with extremely hot weather and I'm sure they wish it was fall!

  

I have had the honor of being invited to be a guest designer for Altenew for August, It has been so much fun and a LOT of work!  I've really enjoyed the entire process.  One of my favorite stamp sets from the August Monthly Series release is their Mini Delight - Deco Elements.  It has a fantastic 1920's graphic feel to it that can be used in so many ways!

I used the Deco Elements with my stamp wheel to create this Biedermeier effect for this card.  The simple image repeated lends itself to a CAS style, so I'm entering it in the Just Add Ink and the Addicted to CAS challenges.

I stamped the leaf using black pigment ink and heat embossed it with clear powder.  I then colored in the leaves with my new Altenew alcohol markers.  It was so easy!

The card is finished off with the large frame and die from the Deco Elements set.  I love it when a project is simple, but makes a huge impact!

This set and all the monthly subscription sets are available starting August 17th!  Also, join me at my Youtube channel for detailed instructions on how to create a beautiful card using this set and the Altenew stamp wheel!

Hope you have a colorful day!!

Managing life and JUGS

 Hi all,

Its hard managing life isn't it?  I have had a hard time keeping up with my crafting managing 2 homes while my mom recovers from her fall, getting one daughter ready to leave for college again and the other to start her first year of high school.  Leaves little time for crafting!

I did however help decorate a friends, daughter's baby shower and it happened to go along with this weeks challenge at JUGS, CASE a Team Member.  Strawberries made by Carol was a perfect match for the shower theme!  Since I was the July guest designer, I had to play along to finish out the month!

  

It's not the first time decorating with a balloon arch for me, the first time took me over 6 hours to make...I had no idea what I was doing...now I've got it down to 2.5 hrs with an assistant...thanks to my BFF Cristy!  I decided to make the tags for her gifts and card to coordinate with the theme of the party, and it gave me the opportunity to use up some old strawberry embellies I picked up in Copenhagen over 10 years ago!!!  I really have a problem of holding onto things.....

This card uses an OLD Papertrey Ink set along with a new set they have Elegant Notes Stationary Kit.  I wasn't able to invest the time into really playing with all the pieces and parts, but I'm eager to do so soon!

They have a dog named Coco they love like a child, so I made sure to get her a little something too...

I hadn't filled out this tag before I took this photo...I added a cute little wax seal, which is my new obsession!  Love those little things!

I always give a piggie bank at a baby shower, this one matches their dog and the room for the little princess!  And if you like this sort of thing, below is the arch I made for them...

 

Who knew they were so labor intensive to make?  Either way, I love how it came out.

Have a colorful day, I hope to be able to post again soon...

Hot, hot, HOT!

 Hi all!

It's my final week with the lovely ladies at the Just Us Girls challenge as their July Guest Designer.    All of the ladies have been incredibly supportive and sweet.  Their challenges are fantastic, different every week, and give the opportunity to stretch my imagination.  I am sad it's over because I've loved every minute of it!

 

This week we are challenged to make a CAS card with three of something...see what I mean about amazing challenges?!?  I could have used a normal image or even a word to repeat 3 times.  Instead...I thought outside the box!

Have you ever seen this set from Altenew called Wonderful Wycinanki? Wycinanki is a Polish art form generally used in embroidery, paper cut outs and even in home decoration.  Since I'm a sucker for bold colors and graphic images...and that my grandfather was Polish....I had to get this set many years ago.  When I saw the images from the set, the leaf shapes inspired me to make it into something else....

Am I right???  It's perfect for a stylized flame!  This was really easy to do, just a few presses from my Misti with the graduating leaf stamp and colors, I had my flame.  I added some red Stickles to the flame to make it eye catching.

Part of the sentiment is from the set, and the rest I die cut using Altenew's Tall Alpha die set from glitter paper.  I added the color to the paper with my blending brushes and a little bit of red Stickles to make it really pop and match the flame!  I also layered it onto 3 layers of black paper to give the letters some lift and a subtle outline.

Thank you for joining us this week at JUGS.  Make sure you play along with us and give some love to those hard working ladies...They're fabulous!!

Stay colorful!

Life changes in an instant...

 Hi all,

It's shocking how quick life can change...the birth of a child...a new job offer....a tragic fall.  Unfortunately ours has changed from the latter.  My 81 yr old mom fell last Saturday on our 9 hr drive home from Lake Norman in SC.  While her prognosis is good, she did break her wrist, her C2 vertebrae and nearly bled out from an arterial cut on her forehead.  We just got her back to northwest Ohio and we are grateful for the angels that crossed our path during the crisis. The next 12 weeks will be ones filled I'm sure with challenges and successes.  I will say I have DEFINATELY earned my paper therapy today!

 

This is my 3rd week with Just Us Girls challenge blog as a guest designer! I love the inspiration photo, but don't have anything raspberries, so I went with the colors.

  

I decided to use up some more of the granite paper I created with this video, and added a raspberry colored panel with it.  I stamped an image over it with Versamark and heat embossed it with gold powder.

I then accented the flower on the raspberry side with some markers, just to make them stand out a bit more.  My mojo is a bit off, but now that we're back at home I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things.  

  

This week will be a bit crazy as well with appointments with neurosurgeons and orthopedic Drs, so I'm hoping to carve out some time in the studio for my mental health!

If you have a chance, visit my YouTube channel on the 17th for more releases from Altenew!

Have a colorful day!

Seashell JUGS

 Hi all!

Here I am again with another Guest Designer card for the Just Us Girls Challenge (aka JUGS)!  I love this opportunity and am being challenged for sure...I literally only have 1 stamp set in all my collection that has this weeks theme:

 

Yup!  Just 1 stamp set...AND there are only 2 shell stamps....AND they're super tiny.  I don't even have printed papers with shells on them! I think the saving grace is the sentiment really.  I mean it's made for this challenge!

This little stamp set is from Lawn Fawn called Manatee-rific.  Our family's house in Florida was on the mouth of the Manatee river, the Gulf of Mexico and the Tampa Bay.  We had manatees swimming right up to our deck ALL the time!  I'm sure that's what I was thinking of when I bought this set.  I don't normally gravitate towards 'cutsie' sets but this one is adorable!

It has also be AGES since I've made a shaker card. I'm thinking probably 10 years ago at least, so this was a fun card to create.  I also used Altenew's Dotted Waves die and stencil set for the background, and used alcohol makers to color the images from Altenew as well.  I'm just starting to get into alcohol markers, so if you have any tips, I'd love to hear them!

The sequins are ones I use all the time and I added a bit of iridescent glitter to the mix as well.  I think they look like little bubbles....  I guess that's it!  

Have a colorful day!

Today is the day!

 Hi all!

Today is the day!  I'm excited to be a part of Altenew's July Cut, Color and Craft Bundle Release!  Here are all the links to get to the information...

Video Hop - https://youtu.be/GSl5hAG8lhw

My video on the hop - https://youtu.be/PBKu6B54gLQ

Full product bundle release - https://altenew.com/products/july-2023-full-release-bundle

Get hopping and get your products today!!

Have a crafty, colorful day!