Rubeena's Crafting Anniversary Blog Hop DAY ONE + Giveaways

ETA - I have added a GIVEAWAY WINNERS page to my blog. It is updated with the winner from this post! Congrats to Melissa F. Please check that page for instructions. Thank you!

Welcome to Rubeena’s Crafting Anniversary 2-Day Blog Hop! This hop is epic with more than 70 guests and over $1,000 in sponsored prizes! Not only are we celebrating four years since Rubeena first discovered cardmaking but also crafting in general. This industry is made up of wonderful individuals who are creative, inspirational, kind, and incredibly supportive! Hop along so you can learn about why we create and how much joy it brings us!

I adore Rubeena, and her beautiful, eclectic style! I love that she has organized this big, beautiful hop to celebrate cardmaking! I have been in this industry since 2002, and I just continue to love it SO much. There is just so much good in my day when it revolves around creating & papercrafting. I took an extended time away during the time that we lost our babies, and it was a needed break. But cardmaking has also helped me as I continue to grieve, and I create in honor of those two little ones who inspire me every single day. They were both such beautiful souls, and everything I create makes me think of them.

You should have arrived here from the amazing, Zsoka Marko's blog. You will be heading to Kelly Latevola's blog after mine, and you can get the full blog hop line-up on Rubeena's blog. I am going to put the giveaway info at the end of my post {including one that is EXCLUSIVE to my blog}, but how about we get to my cards now?

I created these two light & pastel cards for the hop today, using the Word Series: Thanks stamps & coordinating die from Pinkfresh Studio, and some beautiful paints from Shimmerz.

I created these cards using the beautiful summer colors from the August Pinkfresh Studio challenge. There are still a few days to create something for the challenge, and be entered to win some amazing prizes! Here is the challenge graphic, and I will be sure to link it to the challenge post!

 To start, I added three paint brushstrokes to the front of white cardstock blocks in the following Shimmerz paint colors: Pink-O-De Mayo, Limoncello & It's Mint to Be. I was a little more heavy-handed on the first one, and then applied the paint lighter on the second time around. They both turned out, but I do think I prefer the lighter one myself.

While the paint was drying, I stamped & heat embossed the word Thanks in gold to both white cardstock and vellum. Then I diecut the word with its coordinating die, and set them aside.

With the paint dry, I used the word Thanks to help line up where I wanted the smaller part of the sentiment to go on each painted panel. Then I stamped them directly to each panel, which worked on the lighter one but didn't on the one with more paint. I think there was too much paint, so the ink pooled up. I salvaged this mistake by stamping & heat embossing that sentiment in white to a black cardstock strip. Then I cut a banner edge to the left side.

Before putting the cards together, I decided that they needed a little something more. So I flicked both gold & black paint splatter to the front of each panel, then let them dry. This only takes a few minutes with small amounts of splatter like this!

Then I mounted both painted panels to top folding A2 cards in cashmere and light blue using foam adhesive. I prefer using a full piece of white fun foam covered in 2.5 inch ScorTape to mount my panels to cards so that there won't be any warping, indenting, etc.

To finish the cards, I adhered the sentiment pieces to the fronts with foam adhesive. Then I accented with my signature jewels tucked here & there!

I mentioned giveaways above, and before I get to all the sponsored ones...I wanted to share my giveaway that is exclusive to this post! One lucky comment will win this Pinkfresh Studio prize package, including the Bright Side of Life and Now is the Time standalone dies (valued at $34)!

All you have to do is leave me a comment on this blog post about anything - my cards, what you love about cardmaking...whatever you'd like! If you'd like (but completely optional - please only follow/subscribe if you truly want to), you can also get additional entries for the following items:

•  Follow me on Instagram

•  Subscribe to my YouTube channel

Just leave an additional comment for each option, including if you already do so. :)

BLOG HOP SPONSORED GIVEAWAYS

In celebration of this anniversary, there are several amazing sponsors. Let’s thank them for their generosity! Winners will be randomly selected from comments left on all the blogs. The winners will be announced by Wednesday, September 5 on Rubeena's giveaway page. Winners will have up to 2 weeks to contact Rubeena at ararerubycrafts@gmail.com to claim their prize before another winner is selected.

Studio Katia - $50 gift card
Hello Bluebird - $50 gift card
Altenew - $50 Gift card
Pinkfresh Studio - $30 gift card
Gina K. Designs - $50 gift card
Clearly Besotted - £25 gift card
Simon Says Stamp - $25 gift card
Spellbinders Card Kit ($55 value).
Jennifer McGuire - $50 Simon Says Stamp gift card
Winnie & Walter, LLC - $40 gift card
Mama Elephant - $25 gift card
Hero Arts - $25 gift card
Nichol Spohr LLC - Custom-sewn rainbow pencil case filled with brand new Spellbinders dies
Danielle Flynn - $25 Simon Says Stamp gift card
Picket Fence Studios - four $25 gift cards
Ellen Hutson - two $25 gift cards
Pretty Pink Posh - two $30 gift cards
The Stamp Market - July 2018 Release (estimated $100 value)
Indigojade Art Shop - $50 gift card to Art Prints & Gifts Shop
Flora & Fauna - a 4x6 stamp set
Waffle Flower - $25 gift card
Power Poppy - $50 gift card

I also wanted to share my latest YouTube video today! I just got my new PC laptop up & running with a super user friendly video editing software. I already had these cards finished before I had it all figured out, so I don't have a video for them. But this video is from a card I posted over the weekend that I thought you might like to see!

I hope you have a wonderful time hopping over the next two days!

SUPPLY LIST
For your shopping convenience, all products are linked below. {Includes affiliate linking where possible - this allows small compensation for me at no cost to you. Never fear - I will only ever link to products that I truly love & use!}