Ink Blending NEW Flowers! - TRIPLE B TOP WINNER!!

 Hi all!

Hi, I'm Kristin.  I'm addicted to flowers.  It all started when I picked a bouquet of pretty leaves for my mom. I handed her the bouquet, and she declared they were beautiful...as moms do... I was pleased to have given a gift that brought a smile to her face!  It was however the gift that kept on giving....as it included poison sumac.  BUT....the happiness she showed when she received the bouquet is what I relate flowers with!

 

This is my second card for the Tic Tac Toe challenge this week, and I'm following the same diagonal line.  Ink blending, die cuts and leaves.  I am also adding this to the Happy Little Stampers Birthday Challenge this month and Triple B challenge.

These flowers are from the soon to be released Altenew Craft-a-Flower Japanese Camellia (the link won't work until the 18th, but save it because they will go FAST)!  This card came about because I cannot let ANYTHING go to waste, especially ink. So, when I work with stencils or ink blending, I scrub off my brushes onto an other piece of card stock as to not waste the ink (you can see more about it here). These flowers were created from one of those scrap papers!  

Admittedly, the green leaves are not from that scrap paper....but the blossoms are! (obscure Goonies reference here)  Not bad for a scrap piece of paper?  Use up that ink and make scrap papers as you craft, I use mine ALL the time!

A little splatter of metallic gold watercolor and white acrylic paint just makes it so fun.  The sentiment is from Sweet Sentiments die set, which I also use all the time.

That's it for today!  I hope you've had a colorful weekend!

Mandala Holiday Tags

Hi all!

One of my favorite things about gift giving is the gift wrap!  Even if you give a simple little gift, you can make it special with a fabulous wrap job.  A beautifully wrapped gift makes the receiver feel incredibly special.  I love to make special tags for my gifts, like this one or these.  What kind of gift wrapping do you make?

 

The AAA Challenge this week could not come at a better time!  I planned on making some tags for Altenew's Marvelous Monthly Subscriptions release so this challenge helped me get them done.  This subscription set also comes with a coordinating die, so I thought I'd enter them also into the Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge.  They offer their subscriptions individually or get them all! 

These tags feature the soon to be released, Altenew's Spark Joy subscription for September, Folk Mandala (this link will not be active UNTIL September 18th, so mark your calendars!).  The Spark Joy subscriptions always comes with a foil plate and coordinating stencils.  Nice, eh?

I kept these tags fairly simple...at least simple for me...and made them holiday themed.  I think the mandala looks like a snowflake, so I ran with it.  I also love using non-traditional colors for my holiday crafting, I'm not a green and red combo kind of gal.

Both cards were cut using Altenew's Terrific Tags die set, a go to for my tag making.  This pink one was foiled in rose gold foil and inked with the Cherry Blossom ink family.  I added a sentiment from the Holiday Tag stamp set embossed in gold and inked with markers.  The embellies are gold sequins with a pink enamel dot in the center.

The blue tag was created with silver foil and the sentiment is from the Holiday Script Words die set, layered 5 times with the final one cut from silver cardstock.  I finished it off with some silver cording.

Don't forget to mark your calendars for the release for September 18th!  

Have a colorful day!

Favorite Flavor - TIC TAC TOE DESIGNERS CHOICE!

Hi all!

Is there one flavor you love?  Like...you would eat ANYTHING if it was that flavor?  I will have anything that is lemon flavored.  Drinks, cookies, pasta, fish, candy, veggies, chocolate...its a thing, I promise!  I even have some minimal amounts of lemons in my décor, just here and there, nothing over the top...yet.

This card is for the Tic Tac Toe challenge this week, and I chose the diagonal combo of ink blending, die cuts and leaves.  

When I saw this set and the rest of Altenew's Lemonade Party collection, I knew I HAD to have it!  Lemonade is my FAVORITE drink of all time, so it was fitting.  The ink blending on this is simple, only the leaves and the lemons have it on it, but I used 4 colors on those lemons and 3 on the leaves.  I'm a bit obsessive...

After I completed the blending, I added little dots to the lemons with an alcohol ink marker.  I love that detail!

The background was stamped on navy blue card stock and then splattered with some white acrylic paint.  Now looking at it in the picture, I'm not sure I like the sentiment on the white paper...oh well!

That's it for today, have a colorful week!

Now I'm craving lemon chocolate...........

EEK! Honors and another challenge - THE FLOWER CHALLENGE - HM!

 Hi all!

I was SO excited to discover this morning I was the winner of the Flower Challenge for August!  That just makes me feel so giddy!  I love flowers...I mean I was a florist and event designer for over 15 years...flowers are in my blood.  If its your thing, check out my blog post with the winning card HERE.

So this is my entry for this month's Flower Challenge, to use a die.  Since I use flowers in just about EVERY card I make, I'm sure I'll have more than 1 entry for this challenge....tee hee... 

This is a new die set from Altenew called BellFlower.  Its a GREAT die set, and with the new die assembly system with Altenew dies, it's a BREEZE to put together.  And this one was even easier to create, I used pre-printed papers and I LOVE them!!  There are lots of bolded words because I'm passionate for this set...

After I assembled the flowers and attached the to the black card front, I added white acrylic paint splatters to add a little interest and break up the black a bit.  The 'hope' sentiment is from Versatile Greetings 2 and smaller one I can't remember for the life of me which stamp set that's from...ugh... I did create another card with this die set, and I'll share that one soon!

I hope you have a colorful day!

I need a new die cutter... - DT for CAS on FRIDAY!!!

 Hi all...

It's official.  I need to invest in a new die cutter.  I have the Sizzix Big Shot, which I've owned for years and abused it for much of that time...  If you had an unlimited budget...what would you get?  Not that I do mind you, but I like to think big!

This die set is why I need a new die cutter.  Its a great set from Altenew, just released in August.  It's called Whimsically Wild and is so fun, it even has a matching stamp set and stencil.  I used just the die set for this card and it nearly killed me...

This delicate die set is perfect for the idea I originally had for this.  HOWEVER...my die cutter was NOT cooperating!  1,000 different shim combinations, and it was 80% cut out.  I just used my scissors for the rest.  Incredibly frustrating!

I love the simple layout with the simple image, I am entering it in the DT call for CAS on Friday, and the current Less is More challenge

Have a colorful day!

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!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

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...