Happy Thursday, crafty friends! I hope you are having a good week so far! We are two days from my brother's wedding, and have LOTS going on. But I wanted to pop in and share a card set with you featuring the Heart & Soul and Scripted Bold Sentiments 2 stamp sets from Pinkfresh Studio. I've also done some watercolor smooshing with my distress inks.

I find it easiest to do this watercolor smooshing technique on Arches cold pressed 140 lb watercolor paper {SSS | EH}, as it gives a really beautiful effect. I used distress inks in the following colors for my watercolor smooshing: Victorian Velvet, Evergreen Bough, Dustry Concord & Stormy Sky. All colors are linked at the end of the post to both SSS & EH. I have found that watercolor smooshing also works best when using a transparency. So I twist a little bit of Distress Ink in all the different colors to a sheet of transparency, then spritz them down with a Distress Sprayer. Then I just smooth the colors here & there to watercolor paper panels until they look how I want them to.

I stamped or heat embossed the majority of the sentiments directly to the watercolor panels. I use my MISTI {SSS | EH} when stamping to the Arches watercolor paper, because it is quite textured. So it typically needs 2-3 impressions to get a perfect one. I've used a combination of onyx black Versafine and Gilded gold embossing powder for my stamping (both linked below).

For this card I stamped & heat embossed the floral image from Heart & Soul, then cut it out with the coordinating die. I watercolored it with the same distress inks using a size 4 brush. All pieces were mounted to the top of a light blue A2 card base with foam adhesive, then accented with jewel trios to finish.

For this card, I heat embossed the floral image around the edge, as I wanted to share how versatile floral images like this can be. You can stamp it in full as shown above, or use just bits & pieces of it around an edge. This is a great way to highlight the watercolor work you've done! This time I did stamp the second part of the sentiment to matching watercolor paper and trimmed it into a thin strip with a banner edge. I adhered everything to the front of a light purple A2 card base with foam adhesive, then accented with clear iridescent sequins to finish.

And because I DO NOT waste Arches watercolor paper, I created a cute little tag out of a leftover scrap. I used the Tag You're It diecut set {SSS | EH} from Lawn Fawn for this. I heat embossed just a small part of the floral image to it, then accented with sequins. I finished it off with a double bow from ivory twine, and this tag is ready to go on a gift bag or package!

That is everything I have for you today! I hope that you enjoyed my latest card. Before you move along with your day, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media for you get on with your day. I would love to be crafty friends!

Happy Tuesday, friends! I hope you had a wonderful long holiday weekend. We've been with my family in Montana all weekend, and it has been perfect! Lots to do this week for the wedding, and even more family time in store. It's a perfect type of vacation!

Today I wanted to share a card using some of the newest items from Pinkfresh Studio. These are from our April stamp & die release, and I've used the Lacy Floral Border die and the You've Got This stamp set, which was illustrated by my friend, Caly Person. She hand lettered all the brush script words in this set...isn't it so beautiful?!

To start, I ink blended the background to a heavyweight white cardstock panel in an ombre gradient using the following Distress Oxides: Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick and Tattered Rose. These colors are all linked below to both SSS & EH. This is one of my favorite color combos lately and I reach for it time and again, as I am more inclined to make feminine cards. When the gradient looked how I wanted it, I flicked some water to it with my Distress Sprayer and sopped it up with a paper towel to reveal the beautiful reaction that water has with distress oxides.

While the ink blended panel dried, I diecut the Lacy Floral Border 4 times: once from gold glitter paper and three times from white cardstock. I also diecut the shadow from vellum. I stacked & adhered the layers together with a Zig glue pen, then adhered them to the vellum shadow.

Once the panel was dry, I diecut it with my Stitched Rectangle die, then put it into my MISTI and stamped the sentiment from You've Got This directly to it. I stamped the first part of the sentiment to the top in onyx black Versafine. Then I stamped & heat embossed the second part right below in Brutus Monroe Gilded. Be sure to prep your area with a powder tool, as embossing powders stick really well to oxide inks.

At this point it was time to start putting the card together. I mounted the ink blended panel with a full sheet of foam adhesive that I create myself with white fun foam & 2.5" ScorTape, then adhered it to a white A2 card base. I adhered the gold glitter Lacy Floral Border die to the bottom, then accented with clear iridescent sequins to finish. 
That is everything I have for you today! I hope that you enjoyed my latest card. Before you move along with your day, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media for you get on with your day. I would love to be crafty friends!

Happy Friday, crafty friends! I hope that you are having a great start to your long holiday weekend. I wanted to pop in and share the Pinkfresh Studio holiday weekend promo info.
There are over 30 stamp & die sets marked down 30% off for the holiday weekend, including the sentiment set that I used on the card that I am sharing today! This card features the Word Series: Happy stamp set and coordinating die. It also features Fancy Floral 1 and Fancy Floral 2 background dies. While not on sale, we have the most reasonably priced background dies out there. This card was actually part of a Pinkfresh Studio feature in Diecutting Essentials Magazine last fall, but when it made its way back to me over the pond...the sentiment was ruined. In the magazine it was a birthday card, but I changed it to an anniversary card when fixing it.

The background is ink blended from light to dark in these Distress Oxide colors: Tattered Rose, Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Seedless Preserves and Blueprint Sketch {all linked below to both SSS & EH}. Once finished with the ink blending, I splattered it with yellow gold paint from the Gansai Tambi Starry Colors set.

While it dried, I diecut Fancy Floral 1 from pink shimmer cardstock and Fancy Floral 2 from gold glitter paper. I layered them together with a Zig glue pen, then backed it with thin strips of foam tape in places that wouldn't peek through. With the gold paint splatters being dry, I layered both panels to the front of an A2 white card base.

Next I stamped & heat embossed the word Happy to vellum, the cut it out with the coordinating diecut. I stamped the second part of the sentiment to heavyweight white cardstock in onyx black Versafine, then trimmed into a thin strip. I added thin strips of foam tape to the back of both sentiment pieces, then layered them to the card front. To finish, I accented with jewel trios around the sentiment area. 

I hope that you like my card for today! Don't forget to head over to Pinkfresh Studio for some amazing savings this weekend. Other than that, I hope that you have an awesome long weekend, friends!

Before you move along with your day, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media for you get on with your day. I would love to be crafty friends!

Happy Thursday, friends! I hope that you are having a great week so far. I have been crazy busy getting everything ready at Pinkfresh for me to be gone, as we leave for a two week vacation to Montana tomorrow! My little brother is getting married on June 1st, which also happens to be our 17th anniversary. It is going to be an amazing day, and I am so excited! It's going to be such a great two weeks in Montana.

I wanted to share some baby cards I've created using these adorable woodland animal papers from Alexandra Renke. I am just in LOVE with these papers. I save every teeny little piece, and have plans to use every single teeny little piece...lol! They make me think of my little ones in Heaven, who were both supposed to have woodland themed nurseries. In fact...these papers would have looked beautiful framed in them. So instead, I use them for baby cards. 

They are quite easy to put together - start by trimming a block of the woodland themed paper, then add a strip of polka dot paper to each one. I've used "Fawn and Friends" with "Little Dots on Mint" for the baby boy themed card, and "Rabbits and Sheep" with "Little Dots on Rose" for the baby girl themed card. (Can I just say that I love the names of Alexandra's papers?!) Then gently splatter the fronts with light gold paint from the Tansai Gambi Starry Colors set {SSS | EH}. I used a size 4 round brush to create the splatters, and covered the animals with a piece of scratch paper to avoid getting any paint on them. Then I wrapped May Arts ivory burlap twine around the seams, and finished with a double bow on each one.

After that I diecut the scripted Happy {SSS | EH} and For You words three times: once from DCWV glitter paper and twice from white cardstock. I stacked and adhered the layers together with a Zig glue pen. Then I placed them on each panel in order to measure where the stamped portion of the sentiments were to go. Once I was happy with the placement, I stamped them in smokey grey Versafine {SSS | EH}. **Fun Fact: I used some of Alexandra's Christmas stamps from last year for these cards! They each had some lovely versatile sentiments like "for you" and "happy" that could be used any time of the year. I love when products are versatile! I used the Meet Me Under the Mistletoe {SSS | EH} & Merry and Bright {SSS | EH} stamp sets on my cards today.

At this point it was time to start putting the cards together. I layered the fawn panel to the front of a woodgrain embossed A2 brown card base with foam adhesive. I thought the woodgrain was a perfect touch for this card that is a little more boy themed. I used an A2 cashmere card base for the lamb panel, and adhered it with foam adhesive as well. 

To finish I accented each one with trios of flat backed jewels. These are from the Essentials: Jewels mix from the latest release at Pinkfresh Studio, and I just LOVE them. They are a GREAT price point as well. You get 12 colors - 3 teaspoons of each in individual containers - and then those containers are all in this handy little box for easy storage and portability. We literally thought of everything....lol!

I also wanted to share a second set of cards with you. I created these cards before Easter, but our foster daughter was running a fever and sick all of Easter weekend. So, I never was able to share them. Although we are way past Easter at this point, I wanted to share these cards while the product was still fairly new.

For the Happy Easter card, I diecut the "Rabbits with Wreaths" paper panel using the Diagonal Stitched Rectangle dies from Pinkfresh Studio, then splattered it with a little bit of gold paint. Once dry, I adhered it to an A2 rose quartz card base with foam adhesive. Next I diecut the Happy Easter word {SSS | EH} from white cardtock three times, then stacked & layered with a Zig glue pen. I layered it to the card front over top of gold thread, then accented with jewel trios to finish.

For the I Believe! card, I started by diecutting the white cardstock panel with the same Diagonal Stitched die set. Then I fussy cut the deer & bunny image from the same "Fawns and Friends" paper I used above. I blended a gold halo behind it with Delicata Golden Glitz ink {SSS | EH}, then added a few gold paint splatters. Once dry, I adhered that panel to an A2 icy mint card base {SSS | EH} with foam adhesive and then adhered the fussy cut animals to it. I cut the I believe! word die out three times; once from gold glitter paper and twice from white cardstock, then stacked & adhered together with a Zig glue pen. **Note: this die actually says I believe in you! - I just trimmed off the in you to make it fit what I wanted.** I adhered it above the animals, then accented the card with jewels to finish. 
That is everything that I have for you today, friends. I will be sharing cards with you throughout my vacation in Montana, but there won't be any videos on my YouTube channel until I return home. I really hope that you like my woodland animal cards today!

Before you move along with your day, I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media for you get on with your day. I would love to be crafty friends!

Happy Tuesday, crafty friends! This month I'm excited to be guesting with WOW! Embossing Powder. For my second guest post this month, I have a fun rainbow gradient card to share with with you! I love how these new Lacey Edgers 1 dies from Pinkfresh Studio almost make it feel like a pinata! These dies just released yesterday, and are part of our May Essentials release. Check out THIS POST if you'd like to participate in the blog hop and enter for your chance to win lots of giveaways!

To start this card I painted the ombre stripes to (2) blocks of smooth Bristol cardstock using Pinkfresh Studio liquid watercolor, then dried them with my WOW! Embossing dual heat tool. Once they were bone dry, I diecut them with the Lacey Edgers 1 dies and layered to the front of a white cardstock panel, popping just each bottom edge up with foam tape. Then I applied a light wash of Zig glue to the bottom of each edge, and lightly sprinkled WOW! Sparkles in Bridal to them. Then I adhered this entire panel to a white A2 card base.

Next I diecut the bow from white glitter paper using the Partial Cut Bouquet & Bow die set from Pinkfresh, assembled it and adhered it to the left side of the card. Then I diecut the word Hooray from the Classic Words die set three times from white cardstock, stacked & adhered them together with a Zig glue pen. I tapped it directly into the WOW! slow drying embossing ink pad, and covered in WOW! Under the Sea embossing powder. I heat set it, then adhered it to the right side of the bow. 

To finish, I accented with a few trios of flat-backed jewels in coordinating colors. These are the new Essentials: Jewels Mix from Pinkfresh Studio, and I just LOVE them. I had some influence over the colors picked for this set, and I am SO happy with how they turned out.

I really hope that you enjoyed my card today using some of the amazing WOW! Embossing Powders, Sparkles, ink & heat tool! I think their products are a perfect fit with all the amazing new items we've been releasing at Pinkfresh Studio...don't you? That is all I have for you today! I wanted to invite you to follow me on social media for you get on with your day. I would love to be crafty friends!

Happy Monday, friends! Today I am excited to share that our second release of Essentials went live in the Pinkfresh Studio store. This release includes 6 new diecut sets, 1 set of flat backed jewels and 1 set of shaker crystals, with 12 colors in each set. 
 The diecut sets includes label frames, edgers, a tag, and so much more. In true Pinkfresh fashion, we've worked very hard to make these Essentials versatile, unique and we think you will love adding them to your crafting studio!

Here is a look at all of the new products:

There is so much to go over, but first - why don't I share the awesome shopping promos we have going on! First up is this free die with ANY purchase from the Pinkfresh Studio store. It will automatically load into your cart!
We are also offering FREE shipping in the USA on orders $50+, or discounted shipping for our International friends! Just use the code: 

This promo is valid until Sunday, May 26th at 11:59pm. The code will deduct $5.50 from your order, which is the equivalent of free U.S. shipping, or discounted International shipping.

Now, I will put the rest of the blog hop & GIVEAWAY info down at the bottom of my post, but how about we get to my projects for today? I've channeled my inner Cathy Z. in my cards today, as I needed some grad cards this year too. However, I didn't personalize them and went with WTG, meaning "Way to Go!". I focused my cards around the brand new Pretty Frames 2 die, and combined it with the highly popular (and just re-stocked) Adore Alpha die set, Stitched Rectangles diecut set from our 1st Essentials release, and sentiments from Through the Trees and Abstract Builder. And finally, I have accented each card with our brand new Jewel mix.

I did do a video for today, including an introduction to all of the new items and my card process. You can check that out below - I'm still getting over all the germs our foster daughter would bring home from daycare, so my voice is a bit gravely & scratchy.

I know that not everyone loves to watch videos, so I will still write out the process too! I started by diecutting the Pretty Frames 2 die from heavyweight white cardstock 3 times. Then I diecut the Adore Alpha letters 4 times: once from gold glitter paper, and three times from white cardstock. Then I stacked & adhered all the white layers together with a Zig glue pen. Finally, I diecut the Stitched Rectangle from Bazzill Jellybean cardstock. At this point, all the diecutting was complete.

Next I stamped the sentiments to white cardstock in onyx black Versafine, then trimmed into thin strips. I added banner edges to the sentiment strip for the purple card.

Then I put together the purple version of the card by layering all the elements to the front of a white A2 cardbase, popping some of the items up with foam adhesive. This gave the card great dimension, and also made it very sturdy. Finally, I added our new flat backed jewels to the front of the card with mixed media glue and my new Crystal Katana jewel picker. My friend, Heather Hoffman, told me about this tool and I finally broke down & ordered one. Let me tell you this - I shouldn't have waited so long. This is the best jewel picker I have EVER used - it actually works correctly!

The blue card was put together almost exactly as the purple card above, with the exception of one added step at the beginning. I splattered the navy cardstock panel with Gansai Tambi gold paint and watered down titanium white acrylic paint. Once dry, I put it together in the same fashion as the card above.

 I really hope that you liked my fun set of grad cards today! I really love how they turned out!

Those are the projects that I have for you today, so how about we get to the rest of the info you need?

You have the chance to win a $25 gift card sponsored by Pinkfresh Studio from my blog {and all the other posts on the blog hop too!} - all you have to do is leave a comment!
 You can also win the full Essentials release on the Pinkfresh Studio blog and Instagram feed. You have until Sunday, May 26th at 11:59pm CST to leave a comment. Winners will be posted on the Pinkfresh Studio GIVEAWAY PAGE on Monday. You must check this page & claim your prize within 2 weeks.